Calvatia, Calvacin and Cancer

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A summary is given concerning the developments since the discovery of tumor-inhibiting substances in 2 basidiomycetes, Boletus edulis and Calvatia gigantea. Some of the important results of the research on C. gigantea are (1) the development of a technic for germination of basidiospores; (2) selection of new strains, from germinated spores, that produce more calvacin than the parent strains; (3) all strains studied are heterotrophic with respect to thiamine; (4) electron microscopy shows the septum in the dikaryotic hyphae to be of the dolipore-parenthesome type; (5) the best C sources for mycelial growth are: glucose, cellobiose, dextrin, glycogen, and maltose, while cellobiose appears to be the best for production of calvacin; (6) calvacin retarded 13 out of 24 types of cancer in laboratory animals.