Effect of Cinnamomum kanehirae Extractives on the Compositions of the Fermentation Broth of Antrodia cinnamomea

IRG/WP 07-10632

Ruo-Yun Yeh, Yuan-Min Shen , Shang-Tzen Chang

The fruiting body of Antrodia cinnamomea, called niu-chang-chih, is well known and highly prized in Taiwan as a folk medicine. This fungus is endemic to Taiwan and the growth of which is restricted to the inner heartwood cavities of another endemic tree species, Cinnamomum kanehirae. The fungal basidiomes have been used for treating food and drug poisoning, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hypertension, itchy skin and cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of C. kanekirae extractives on the fungal mycelium production and the spore germination. The heartwood was extracted using 70% ethanol, and then liquid-liquid partitions using n-hexane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and distilled water were carried out respectively. The effects of treating the fermentation broths with C. kanehirae extractives on the fungal biomass, antioxidant scavenging activity using 1, 1-diphyenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) were examined, and the compositions of the fermentation broth were monitored using high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. The results indicate that C. kanehirae extractives treated fungal broths had higher growth promotional effect on their biomass then that of the control (0.0313 g). The n-hexane soluable fraction treated mycelia showed the greatest dry mass (0.0480 g), followed by ethyl acetate soluable fraction (0.0333 g). The addition of crude extract increased the spore germination activity from 8.1 x 106 cfu/ml to 1.1 x 107 cfu/ml. The n-butanol soluble fraction showed the best spore germination activity of 1.3 x 107 cfu/ml. The active fungal ingredient, dehydroeburicoic acid, was found to increase with the addition of C. kanehirae extractive fractions according to the HPLC analysis. The C. kanehirae extractives were effective DPPH free radical scavengers which masked the antioxidant effect of the fungal broth.


Keywords: Cinnamomum kanehirae, Antrodia cinnamomea, Spore germination, Triterpenoids, DPPH assay

Conference: 07-10-29/11-02 Taipei, Taiwan


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