Anticancer potential of Trametes versicolor (L.) Lloyd and Auriporia aurea (Peck) Ryvarden mycelia in rat Guerin’s carcinoma.

Mushroom extracts possess promising immunomodulatory and anticancer potential which develops interest for new entities from these fungal sources for novel therapeutic agents against different diseases. In present study Anticancer activity of aqueous extracts of two fungal species, Auriporia aurea 5048 and Trametes versicolor 353 mycelia cultivated on a natural substrate (amaranth flour - waste of CO2-extraction from Amaranthus hybridus L. grains) have been investigated for their anti-cancer potential using Guerin's carcinoma as a tumor model. The effectiveness was evaluated by the degree of tumor growth inhibition based on tumor volume. The administration of mushroom suspensions and extracts resulted in significant tumor size decrease compared to the control group (from 7th to 16th day after Guerin's carcinoma inoculation). It has been found that that oral dose of T. versicolor mycelium aqueous extract two times a day for 10 consecutive days inhibited tumor growth by 65% and prolonged administration of T. versicolor mycelium suspension was accompanied by tumor size growth at the terminal period (22th day), which twice exceeded the performance of the control group. Further, to the best of our knowledge the anticancer potential of A. aurea against carcinoma was reported for the first time in this study.