Cultivating the ‘mushroom of immortality’
Print Edition
ZHANG Jingsong’s WeChat handle, “ganoderma ambassador,” pretty much sums up his 23 years of work at the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Ganoderma is a genus of mushroom that grows on wood and is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Zhang, an organic chemist by training, was transferred from a job at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994 to do research on medical uses of ganoderma. He is now director of Institute of Edible Fungi.
“Mushrooms, like beech mushrooms, are harvested once a year under normal conditions,” he explained, “but with human intervention and a tightly controlled environment, they can be harvested daily and be available in the market at any time.”
He and his team have developed a scientific system to control humidity, temperature, light exposure and content of carbon dioxide to create daily growth.
Zhang has collected 153 strains of ganoderma strains. Over 80 percent of areas that produce ganoderma spores powder in China cultivate strains developed by Zhang and his team.
“We needed to study strain identification, test biological activity, perfect quality control and structure all active ingredients of all species,” he said.
He has built the first resources data bank for ganoderma cultivated in China, which sorted some of the chaos of strains in the market and set standards for product regulation.
Ganoderma, also known as lingzhi in Chinese, has been called the “mushroom of immortality.”
In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) folk tale “The Legend of the White Snake,” the female snake risks her life to steal the mushroom from Mount Emei to save her husband’s life.
“I want to promote lingzhi health products for use in households,” Zhang said. “With human intervention and industrial production, we can bring the price down so that lingzhi won’t be the privilege of only the wealthy anymore.”
Research has found out that ganoderma mushrooms contain polysaccharides that can alter the makeup of bacteria in the gut and even help shrink cancer tumors by stimulating the production of T-cells to build up the immune system.
“A daily dose of lingzhi product can help keep the immune system in balance,” Zhang said. “The Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences has worked with Shanghai Baixin Inc to initiate medical supplies.”
He pointed to his own relatively youthful appearance and energy levels as evidence of the positive effects.
Zhang said he has no doubt that lingzhi is among the most valuable of medical fungi. His only concern is finding enough new blood to carry on the work of the team.
“Our work still has to catch up with that of more advanced countries,” he said.
His team is offering career opportunities to young researchers to help them study abroad, but even with that, few young people have risen to the challenge, he said.
“They say they want to stay here,” he said. “I ask them why they want to become researchers at the institution. Some say they are just following friends. Others say it’s just a temporary step before making up their minds on the right career path. No one seems to be joining the team out of sheer interest in research.”
Zhang sighed and said it’s hard sometimes to understand the lack of motivation in the younger generation.
“Doing research is hard and you need to be able to withstand hours of solitude,” he said. “If young people are looking to make money or want an easy career, I suggest they go into business.”
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