Lignosus rhinocerus

Lignosus rhinocerus, commonly known as tiger milk mushroom, belongs to family Polyporaceae in the division Basidiomycota.[2][3][4] Tiger milk mushroom is regarded as a medicinal mushroom with the ability to treat numerous ailments. This fungus is geographically distributed only in tropical rainforests in the region of South China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Papua New Guinea.[5][6]

Lignosus rhinocerus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Fungi
Division:
Basidiomycota
Class:
Agaricomycetes
Order:
Polyporales
Family:
Polyporaceae
Genus:
Lignosus
Species:
L. rhinocerus
Binomial name
Lignosus rhinocerus
(Cooke) Ryvarden (1972)
Synonyms[1]
  • Polyporus rhinocerus Cooke (1879)
  • Fomes rhinocerus (Cooke) Sacc. (1888)
  • Scindalma rhinocerus (Cooke) Kuntze (1898)
  • Polyporus sacer var. rhinocerus (Cooke) Lloyd (1920)
  • Polystictus rhinocerus (Cooke) Boedijn (1940)
  • Microporus rhinocerus (Cooke) Imazeki (1952)

In Malaysia, the tiger milk mushroom is more often known as "Cendawan Susu Rimau" and is hailed as Malaysia’s national treasure. It has been used traditionally as a health tonic. According to folklore, the name is based on a story in which the relatively uncommon fungus grows on the spot where a tigress drips her milk while feeding her cubs.

History

The tiger milk mushroom was first reported in 1664 when a European government agent was given this product upon sailing to the South East Asian Region. According to The Diary of John Evelyn (Publication dated 22 June 1664), this mushroom was named ‘Lac tygridis’, meaning "tiger’s milk". In his publication, Evelyn also recorded that this fungus was used by the local people to treat diseases for which European doctors found no cure. In 1890, Sir Henry Nicholas Ridley, the father of Malaya’s rubber industry, recorded that this fungus was an important medicinal mushroom used by local communities.[7] He even attempted to cultivate it but failed. In the same year, this fungus was scientifically documented by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke who named it as Fomes rhinocerotis based on a specimen found in Penang.[8] Today, it is known by the scientific name Lignosus rhinocerus.

Botanical Description

Lignosus rhinocerus has a centrally stipulate pileus . That's simply a mushroom cap which grows at the end of a stipe (stem) arising from a district buried tuber or sclerotium.[9] Unlike most other type of mushrooms, this fungus has unique growth habit. Their growth is solitary, and can find only one fruit body at a time. This species is classified as precious and rare due to the uniqueness of the solitary growth habit, and the distance between one fruit body and another is not less than 5 km.

Tiger milk mushrooms are said to emerge from the very spot where the milk of a prowling tigeress has spilt on the ground. The underground fungus has tuber/sclerotia, where it will remain for a period of anywhere from a month to decades. The presence of this sclerotium can only be seen when the mushroom sprouts. Medicinal properties of tiger milk mushrooms are only found in underground, in the tuber or sclerotium, but unfortunately once formation of the mushroom's cap and/or stem has happened, it's believed to cause depletion of most of its nutrients.

Claimed benefits

A 2018 review of the testing of investigations into Lignosus rhinocerotis concluded that "there is a paucity of validation studies including human clinical trials of the mycochemicals of L. rhinocerotis."[10]

Traditionally, the Tiger milk mushrooms have been used for more than 400 years as a health tonic by the aborigines or native for its healing properties on more than 15 types of medical ailments, including; treatment of lung and respiratory diseases (including asthma, cough), fever, vomit, breast cancer, chronic hepatitis, gastric ulcer, food poisoning. It's also believed to help with wound healing and indigestion. Aborigines also boil it with Tongkat ali and used it as general tonic to strengthen the body.[11]

Medicinal properties

Tiger milk mushrooms have received much interest in recent years, owing to its wide-ranging enthobotanical uses, and the success in domestication of the mushroom. Several studies have been initiated to examine its safety and biopharmacological efficacy in order to validate its enthobotanical claims. Research findings have revealed that tiger milk mushroom sclerotia to contain various biologically active substances, such as polysaccharides, polysaccharides-protein complexes, and β-glucan, which demonstrate anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-proliferative and immuno-modulating effects.[12]

Safety assessment

Tiger milk mushrooms have been used for several hundred years, with no known toxicity or side effects. In accordance with OECD guidelines, various stringent toxicity studies have been conducted, and the mushroom's safety has been scientifically assessed. Preclinical toxicological evaluation of the cultivated sclerotium of Lignosus rhinoceros tested on rats have shown the treatment did not establish any pathological changes in the liver, kidney, heart, spleen, and lung and also had no adverse effect on the fertility of the subject nor induce tetratogenic effect on their offspring.[13][14] In addition, screening by The Toxicology Laboratory of the National Poison Center, Malaysia concluded no corticosteroid were found in the cultivated tiger milk mushroom.[15]

Cultivation

As a result of its unique growth habit, it is difficult to find. The inconsistent supply of raw material and uneven harvest quality, coupled with lack of research, prevents further exploration and study into the possible health potential of the traditional health tonic.

In the past, the mushroom had never been able to enter large-scale commercialization, until Tan Chon Seng, a researcher from MARDI (Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute) made a breakthrough in 2008 by successfully cultivating tiger milk mushrooms with solid fermentation technology.[16]

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gollark: If you want more accurate data, please send me a CSV with all your Discord messages ever so I can train some things on you.
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References
  1. "GSD Species Synonymy: Lignosus rhinoceros (Cooke) Ryvarden". Species Fungorum. Kew Mycology. Retrieved 2016-11-10. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. Ryvarden, L. and Johansen, I. 1980. A preliminary polypore flora of East Africa. Fungiflora. Oslo. 1–636.
  3. Douanla-Meli C, Langer E. (2003). "A new species of Lignosus (Polyporaceae) from Cameroon". Mycologia 86: 389–94.
  4. .Tam CS, Ng S-T, Tan J. (2013). "Two new species of Lignosus (Polyporaceae) from Malaysia — L. tigris and L. cameronensis". Mycotaxon 123: 193–204. doi:10.5248/123.193.
  5. Núñez, M. and Ryvarden, L. 2001. East Asian polypores 2. Polyporaceae s. lato. Synopsis Fungorum 14: 170–522.
  6. Cui, B.K., Tang, L.P. and Dai, Y.C. 2010. Morphological and molecular evidences for a new species of Lignosus (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) from tropical China. Mycologia Progress 1–5.
  7. Ridley HN.1890.On the so-called Tiger's milk,'susu rimau'of the Malays[j].Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society(22):341–344.
  8. Cooke.1879.'XV.Enumeration of Polyporus [J].Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh,13(1):131–159.
  9. Ryvarden, L. and Johansen, I. 1980. A preliminary polypore flora of East Africa. Fungiflora. Oslo. 1-636.
  10. Nallathamby, Neeranjini; Phan, Chia-Wei; Seow, Syntyche Ling-Sing; Baskaran, Asweni; Lakshmanan, Hariprasath; Abd Malek, Sri N.; Sabaratnam, Vikineswary (15 January 2018). "A Status Review of the Bioactive Activities of Tiger Milk Mushroom Lignosus rhinocerotis (Cooke) Ryvarden". Frontiers in Pharmacology. 8. doi:10.3389/fphar.2017.00998.
  11. (Chang, Y.S. and Lee, S.S. (2001). Utilization of wild mushrooms by the Temuans in Selangor,Malaysia. Poster presented at CFFPR 2001, 100 Year Celebration of Forestry Research, 1-3 Oct 2001, Nikko Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.)
  12. Lau, B.F.; Abdullah, N.; Aminudin, N.; Lee, H.B.; Tan, P.J. (2015). "Ethnomedicinal uses, pharmacological activities, and cultivation of Lignosus spp. (tiger׳s milk mushrooms) in Malaysia – A review". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 169: 441–458. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2015.04.042. PMID 25937256.
  13. S.S. Lee, et al., “Evaluation of the Sub-Acute Toxicity of the Sclerotium of Lignosus rhinoceros (Cooke), The Tiger Milk Mushroom,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138, 192–200 (2011)
  14. S.S. Lee, et al., “Preclinical Toxicological Evaluations of the Sclerotium of Lignosus rhinocerus (Cooke), The Tiger Milk Mushroom,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 147, 157–163 (2013).
  15. Tan,C.S.,Ng,S.T.,YeannieYap,H.Y.,Lee,S.S.,Lee,M.L.,Fung,S.Y.,Tan,N.H.,Sim, S.M., 2012.Breathing new life to a Malaysia lost national treasure—the Tiger- Milk mushroom (Lignosus rhinocerotis). In:Zhang,J.Wang,H.Chen,M.(Eds.), Mushroom ScienceXVIII:Proceedings of the 18th Congress of the International Society for Mushroom Science. Beijing:China Agriculture Press, pp. 66–71.).
  16. Tan C S, Ng S T, Vikineswary S, et al. 2009. Development of Lignosus rhinocerus (Cendawan Susu Rimau) cultivar-Bring to life to a valuable Malaysian medicinal mushroom [M] . International Congress of Malaysian Society for Microbiology ( ICMSM 2009) . Penang, Malaysia.
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