But there was no evidence to suggest this. It is thought that the most likely explanation is that they were used for stopping the blood-flow from battle wounds, a known effective use. More recently, Ergot was used to advance labour in childbirth. Pharmaceutical companies are becoming increasingly interested in investigating the simple cures used by poor, primitive peoples in the tropics. One tribe in Thailand uses ground bracket fungi as part of a lotion for very sick children.
Mangroves are rich in fungi some of which are thought to contain a possible future cure for cancer.
Professor Gareth Jones of Portsmouth University is currently exploring this possibility. But the mangroves are disappearing to be replaced by rice paddy fields and much of the tropical rain forest is vanishing too because of illegal logging. We damage the environment at our peril. Only a few of the possible uses of fungi have been mentioned. Others include the use of lichens for pollution-monitoring, the experimental use of mycelial growth in molecular biology and the increasing use of fungi for the biological control of insect pests and plant pathogens.