Monster Mushrooms Could Hold Key to New Meds

For some, a mushroom's a nice topper for salads and sauces, for others a psychotropic walk on the wild side. But for American mycologist Paul Stamets the long-living, sometimes huge, beehive-shaped mushroom called an Agarikon represents the future of treating diseases such as tuberculosis, cowpox, bird and swine flu.

Agarikon is hard to find and grows only on trees in old-growth forests in North America and Europe. The Agarikon may be the longest-living shroom on Earth and is sometimes referred to as the quinine conk because of its bitter taste (no relation to actual quinine.)

Agarikon mushrooms are most promising in the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis. The mushrooms were used to treat TB by Ancient Greeks and by some indigenous peoples in North America. Today in the lab, researchers say, compounds extracted from Agarikon mushroom show encouraging early results in fighting tuberculosis bacteria.

You can see Stamets go on the hunt for Agarikon mushrooms in the video below.

From Discovery News