MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS – GOING VIRAL
Mushrooms have been used as both food and medicine since antiquity. One of my favorite poems, discovered in an ancient Egyptian temple, illustrates this history: “Without leaves, without buds, without flowers, yet from fruit; as food, as tonic, as medicine: the entire creation is precious.” At a time when viral epidemics are inevitable and the current COVID-19 pandemic has presented in most of the world, antiviral therapies are possibly being investigated now more than ever before. This paper explores the use of medicinal mushrooms as antivirals in in vivo (human and animal) and in vitro (petri dish) experiments and how these experiments may inform us on the utilization of these fungi as antiviral therapies. Read More