Effects of crude extracts from mushrooms on different cancer cell lines

In North-Eastern Thailand, there are many varieties of mushrooms that the local people consume in high quantities per year and some kinds of mushrooms are used for medicinal purposes. The aim of this study was to extract bioactive compounds from the fruiting body of Fomitopsis cajanderi (Kar) Kolt & Pouzar, Phellinus everhartii and Phellinus laevigatius using ethanol maceration. An initial resazurin cytotoxicity screening of the crude extracts was carried out in four different human cell lines: A2780 (ovarian), LNCap (prostate), A375 (skin) and ZR75 – 1 (breast gland) cell lines compared with a normal cell line PNT2 (normal human prostate). The crude extracts from Phellinus everhartii and P. laevigatius were the most active at a dose of 125 µg/ml in all the cancer cell lines, but were not cytotoxic to the normal cell line, even at the highest dose tested (125 µg/ml). On the other hand, the Fomitopsis cajanderi (Kar) Kolt & Pouzar crude extract was cytotoxic to all the cancer cell lines and the normal cell. To summarise the crude extracts from three types of mushroom have potent cytotoxic activity in four different cell lines.