Cinnabar Polypore

Description:

location: North America, Europe edibility: Inedible fungus colour: Red or redish or pink, Orange normal size: 5-15cm cap type: Other stem type: Lateral, rudimentary or absent spore colour: White, cream or yellowish habitat: Grows on wood --------Pycnoporus cinnabarinus (Jacq. ex Fr.) Karst. syn. Plyporus cinnabarina Jacq. ex Fr. syn. Trametes cinnabarinus (Jacq. ex Fr.) Fr. Zinnoberschwamm Polypore ou Tramète rouge cinabre, Cinnabar Polypore. Fruit body 3–11cm across, 2–8cm wide, 0.5–1.5cm thick, semicircular or fan-shaped, leathery becoming corky when dried; upper surface covered in fine soft hairs when young, later smooth and slightly wrinkled, bright red or orange-red becoming less bright with age. Tubes 2–6mm long, pale orange. Pores 2–3 per mm, circular or angular, cinnabar- or saffron-red. Spores white, oblong-ellipsoid, 4.5–6 x 2–2.5um. Hyphal structure trimitic. Habitat on dead deciduous trees, especially cherry, beech and birch. Season autumn. Very rare. Not edible. Distribution, America and Europe ( http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/D... )--->rogersmushroom

Habitat:

Ecology: Saprobic on the dead wood of hardwoods (usually with bark still adnate) and rarely on the wood of conifers; causing a white rot; annual; spring through fall, or over winter in warm climates; widely distributed in North America. Fruiting Body: Semicircular to kidney-shaped; planoconvex; 2-13 cm across; up to 2 cm thick; upper surface finely hairy to suedelike, becoming roughened or nearly smooth (often pocked in age), bright reddish orange to dull orangish with age; undersurface bright reddish orange, with 2-4 round to angular (or sometimes slot-like) pores per mm, occasionally extending onto the substrate below the cap; tubes to 5 mm deep; stem absent; flesh tough, reddish to pale orange. Odor and Taste: Odor fragrant or not distinctive; taste not distinctive. Chemical Reactions: Cap surface purplish to reddish, then gray to black with KOH; pore surface olive green with KOH; flesh slowly reddish to blackish or in older specimens yellowish with KOH. Spore Print: White. Microscopic Features: Spores 5-8 x 2.5-3 µ; smooth; cylindrical or long-elliptical; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Hyphal system trimitic. Cystidia absent ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/pycnoporus... )--->mushroomexpert

Notes:

-----------------------------------Medicinal Properties --------Antibacterial efffects --The fruitbodies of Pycnoporus cinnabarinus were screened and found to possess antibacterial properties (Fajana et al., 1999). Shittu et al. (2005) examined mycelial growth and antibacterial metabolite production. The antibacterial activity (measured by the agar cup diffusion method) against B. subtilis was highest after four days of growth. --The concentrated culture fluid of P. cinnabarinus showed biological activity against a variety of bacterial strains, with maximal inhibitory effect for Gram-positive bacteria of the genus Streptococcus. P. cinnabarinus produces the phenoxazinone derivative, cinnabarinic acid, a red pigment that accumulates in fruit bodies as well as in liquid cultures. Laccase secreted by the fungus oxidizes the precursor 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid to cinnabarinic acid, a reaction that is necessary for the production of antibacterial compounds. The biological activity of concentrated P. cinnabarinus culture fluid was nearly identical with that of cinnabarinic acid, synthesized by purified laccase in vitro (Eggert, 1997). --In another study, the 20-day-old liquid culture filtrate of Pycnoporus cinnabarinus showed good antibacterial effects against the growth of the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as well as Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus. The culture filtrate was also used against mycelial growth and mycelial weight of three plant pathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides [Glomerella cingulata] and Colletotrichum miyabeanus, showing good inhibitory effect (Imtiaj and Taesoo, 2007). --------Anti-tumor effects: --Polysaccharides extracted from the mycelial culture of P. cinnabarinus and administered intraperitoneally into white mice at a dosage of 300 mg/kg inhibited the growth of Sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich solid cancers by 90% (Ohtsuka et al., 1973). ( http://healing-mushrooms.net/archives/py... )--medicinal fungi -------------( http://www.soortenbank.nl/soorten.php?so... ), ( http://www.speciesfungorum.org/Names/GSD... )