Medicinal Mushrooms, at the Speed of Science.

Whenever you talk about Medicinal Mushrooms you are often met with skepticism or cynicism, unless you mention Psilocybes, the “magic mushrooms" or Penicillin, the famous antibacterial. Some are familiar with Psilocybes but most everyone is familiar with penicillin and have experienced real palpable results with either fungus. Penicillin is one of the most well-known and widely used medicinal mushrooms, or more accurately, fungus in the world. It has a long and rich history marked by multiple discoveries, ignorance, reluctant acceptance, and finally a profound impact on medicine. Let’s follow the path to mainstream acceptance.  

The earliest records going back some 6000 years belong to the ancient Egyptians using our medicinal mushroom Penicillin. 

Mouldy bread was part of their day to day wound treatment regime. It is likely that this knowledge was spread through the Mediterranean region and is recorded by both the ancient Greeks and Romans. Hippocrates described the use of mouldy bread for the treatment of wounds. The Roman, Pliny the elder, commented on the use of mouldy substances from folk medicine, indicating that these substances were well known and utilized by the common folk. Were these early compounds Penicillin? Maybe, probably. We can still observe the commonness and aggressiveness that penicillin shows attacking bread and out-competing most other moulds. No reason to think why this might have changed.
Far away from the Egyptians and the Mediterranean was China. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) records show a long history of the use of moulds, but rather than just bread moulds, they used moulds growing on soybeans and their derivatives. Again, these treatments were used topically to promote healing and prevent infections. The Chinese were very practical and open to observations. Even today the focus of TCM is not on what is causing the fever or upset stomach, but on how to help the body cope with the condition. 
From ancient times through the Middle Ages and right up to the discovery and manufacture of Penicillin, mouldy bread and other mouldy preparations were part of the standard Pharmacopoeia of possible treatments. Did they know that it was Penicillium doing the job on the microbes? No, they didn’t even know that there were such things as microbes. 
As we reach the 1800s, the microscope had been invented and work began on the whole concept of microbes. John Tyndall was one of the pioneers in this field, arguing for the existence of microbes and developing the concepts and methods of sterilization or as he called it “Tyndallization”. He also reported in this work on the antibiotic nature of mould, though was either not capable or not interested in pursuing what those moulds were. Tyndall’s work supported Louis Pasteur's “Germ Theory”. And with these discoveries came the dawn of a new age; John Tyndall, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch among those leaders. 
Interestingly, in the 1890s, about 25 years before Alexander Fleming's famous Penicillin “incident”, along came a relatively unknown French Physician named Ernest Duchene. He was studying the relationship between microbes and mould. Duchene discovered that certain types of moulds could kill bacteria. He found that guinea pigs injected with Penicillium notatum could recover from Typhoid Fever. This work was described in his doctoral thesis “Contribution to the study of vital competition among Microorganisms: antagonism between mould and microbes”. The thesis was submitted to the Pasteur Institute where it appears to have been shelved and generally ignored. Who was this young inexperienced country doctor and what can he possibly know? Well, we didn’t discover who he was until after he had died, and Alexander Fleming had “discovered” Penicillin. 
Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin in 1928 at St. Mary’s Hospital, London. Most of us are familiar with his serendipitous story. He observed that a mould (Penicillium notatum, same as the Duchene mould) had contaminated a Petri dish and killed the Staphylococcus bacteria growing on it. Fleming published his findings, noting penicillin's potential to kill bacteria. However, there were lots of challenges in purifying and producing penicillin in significant quantities. It appears that Fleming, a researcher at heart, was missing the entrepreneurial spirit to secure his invention and bring it to market and so his focus naturally moved to other research while many of the ill and infirm continued to die.
In the meantime, across the channel in Germany in 1932, Bayer and Co had developed Sulfa drugs. Sulfa drugs were also antimicrobial, inhibiting the ability of bacteria to grow and reproduce. The “forward-thinking” military had discovered in World War I that it is best to maim an enemy soldier rather than killing them. Two enemies have to carry the one away before he stops breathing or bleeds to death, plus you need a whole crew of individuals  and resources to patch him up and nurse him back to health. Sulfa drugs gave Germany an advantage, they could get their soldiers back on the line sooner. It was a radical discovery but also carried some potential side effects such as allergic reactions and some more serious issues such as kidney damage, blood disorders and possible liver damage. In spite of side effects, it gave Germany a major advantage in the maiming business.
Enter the Military Industrial Complex. In Britain, the search was on for a competitive compound or preferably a superior one.  Two University of Oxford researchers, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain were searching the literature and discovered Fleming's research. They thought it should be investigated further. Florey, a pathologist, and Chain, a biochemist, plus their crews, started to work on isolating, purifying, and testing Penicillin. They showed that Penicillin inhibits bacteria from replicating by preventing the formation of intact cell walls. They moved on to clinical trials, commercial production methods and by the mid 1940s Penicillin found itself in active treatment settings. 
Florey and Chains’ work demonstrated Penicillin’s effectiveness as a life-saving antibiotic. In 1945, Florey, Chain and Fleming received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. To this day Fleming is still remembered, Florey and Chain not so much, even though they are the ones whose work brought Penicillin to market. Since then, many other compounds have been developed, and continue to be developed, in the face of bacteria rising up in protest and creating a new-found resistance.

The antimicrobial activity of mushrooms is well known, from microfungi like moulds to the large macrofungi, the mushrooms and polypores we know.  

In spite of the economic handicap, medicinal mushrooms are still out there, waiting to be prepared and used as has happened throughout history. Many of these mushrooms can provide quick, early treatments while we wait in lines, looking for help.