Lignosus rhinocerus

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***Lignosus rhinocerus***, commonly known as **tiger milk mushroom**, belongs to family Polyporaceae in the division Basidiomycota. Tiger milk mushroom is regarded as a medicinal mushroom with the ability to cure numerous ailments. This fungus is geographically distributed only in tropical rainforests in the region of South China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

In Malaysia, the tiger milk mushroom is more often known as "Cendawan Susu Rimau" and is hailed as Malaysia’s national treasure. It has been used traditionally as a health tonic.
According to folklore, the name is based on a story in which the relatively uncommon fungus grows on the spot where a tigress drips her milk while feeding her cubs.

## History

The tiger milk mushroom was first reported in 1664 when a European government agent was given this product upon sailing to the South East Asian Region. According to The Diary of John Evelyn (Publication dated 22 June 1664), this mushroom was named ‘Lac tygridis’, meaning "tiger’s milk". In his publication, Evelyn also recorded that this fungus was used by the local people to treat diseases for which European doctors found no cure.
In 1890, Sir Henry Nicholas Ridley, the father of Malaya’s rubber industry, recorded that this fungus was an important medicinal mushroom used by local communities. He even attempted to cultivate it but failed. In the same year, this fungus was scientifically documented by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke who named it as *Fomes rhinocerotis* based on a specimen found in Penang. Today, it is known by the scientific name *Lignosus rhinocerus*.

## Botanical Description

*Lignosus rhinocerus* has a centrally stipulate pileus–that is, a mushroom cap growing at the end of a stipe (stem) arising from a district buried tuber or sclerotium. Unlike most other type of mushrooms, this fungus has unique growth habit in that their growth is solitary, and can find only one fruit body at time. This species classified as precious and rare because of its uniqueness of the growth habit where distance between one fruit body to another is not less than 5 km.Template:Citation needed

Tiger milk mushroom believed to emerge from the very spot where the milk of a prowling tiger has dropped on the ground. The underground fungus has tuber/sclerotia where it will remain there for month, years and decades. The presence of this sclerotium can only be noticeable when the mushroom sprouts out. Medicinal properties of tiger milk mushroom only found in underground tuber or sclerotium, but unfortunately formation of cap and stem would have depleted most of its essence.Template:Citation needed

## Benefits

Tiger milk mushroom has been used traditionally for over 400 years as a health tonic by the aborigines or native for its healing properties on more than 15 types of medical ailments including treat lung and respiratory disease such as asthma, cough, fever, vomit, breast cancer, chronic hepatitis, gastric ulcer, food poisoning, healing wound and indigestion. Aborigines also boil it with Tongkat ali and used it as general tonic to strengthen the body.

## Cultivation

As a result of its unique growth habit, it is difficult to find. Although the medicinal value of tiger milk mushroom is widely known, the inconsistent supply of raw material and uneven quality of the harvest coupled by lack of research, causing many potential of the traditional health tonic cannot be further explored.Template:Citation needed

In the past, this mushroom has never been able to enter large-scale commercialization, until Tan Chon Seng, a researcher from MARDI (Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute) made a breakthrough in 2008 by successfully cultivating tiger milk mushroom with solid fermentation technology.

## Medicinal properties

Tiger milk mushroom has received much interest in recent years owing to its wide-ranging enthobotanical uses and the success in domestication of the mushroom. Many studies have been initiated to examine its safety and biopharmacological efficacy in order to validate its enthobotanical claims. Research findings revealed that tiger milk mushroom sclerotia contain various biologically active substances such as polysaccharides, polysaccharides-protein complexes, and β-glucan, which demonstrate anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-proliferative and immuno-modulating effects.

## Safety assessment

Tiger milk mushroom has been extensively used safely for over hundreds of years with unknown toxicity and side effects. In accordance with OECD guidelines, various stringent toxicity studies have been conducted and its safety has been assessed scientifically. Preclinical toxicological evaluation of the cultivated sclerotium of *Lignosus rhinoceros* on the subject rats showed the treatment did not establish any pathological changes in the liver, kidney, heart, spleen, and lung and also had no adverse effect on the fertility of the subject nor induce tetratogenic effect on their offspring. In addition, screening by *The Toxicology Laboratory of the National Poison Center*, Malaysia concluded no corticosteroid were found in the cultivated tiger milk mushroom.

## References

1. ↑ Ryvarden, L. and Johansen, I. 1980. A preliminary polypore flora of East Africa. Fungiflora. Oslo. 1–636.
2. ↑ Douanla-Meli C, Langer E. (2003). "A new species of *Lignosus* (Polyporaceae) from Cameroon". Mycologia 86: 389–94.
3. ↑ .Tam CS, Ng S-T, Tan J. (2013). "Two new species of *Lignosus* (Polyporaceae) from Malaysia — *L. tigris* and *L. cameronensis*". Mycotaxon 123: 193–204. doi:10.5248/123.193.
4. ↑ Núñez, M. and Ryvarden, L. 2001. East Asian polypores 2. Polyporaceae s. lato. Synopsis Fungorum 14: 170–522.
5. ↑ Cui, B.K., Tang, L.P. and Dai, Y.C. 2010. Morphological and molecular evidences for a new species of *Lignosus* (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) from tropical China. Mycologia Progress 1–5.
6. ↑ Ridley HN.1890.On the so-called Tiger's milk,'susu rimau'of the Malays[j].Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society(22):341–344.
7. ↑ Cooke.1879.'XV.Enumeration of Polyporus [J].Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh,13(1):131–159.
8. ↑ Ryvarden, L. and Johansen, I. 1980. A preliminary polypore flora of East Africa. Fungiflora. Oslo. 1-636.
9. ↑ (Chang, Y.S. and Lee, S.S. (2001). Utilization of wild mushrooms by the Temuans in Selangor,Malaysia. Poster presented at CFFPR 2001, 100 Year Celebration of Forestry Research,
1-3 Oct 2001, Nikko Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.)
10. ↑ Tan C S, Ng S T, Vikineswary S, et al. 2009. Development of *Lignosus rhinocerus* (Cendawan Susu Rimau) cultivar-Bring to life to a valuable Malaysian medicinal mushroom [M] . International Congress of Malaysian Society for Microbiology ( ICMSM 2009) . Penang, Malaysia.
11. ↑ Template:Cite journal
12. ↑ S.S. Lee, et al., “Evaluation of the Sub-Acute Toxicity of the Sclerotium of *Lignosus rhinoceros* (Cooke), The Tiger Milk Mushroom,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 138, 192–200 (2011)
13. ↑ S.S. Lee, et al., “Preclinical Toxicological Evaluations of the Sclerotium of Lignosus rhinocerus (Cooke), The Tiger Milk Mushroom,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 147, 157–163 (2013).
14. ↑ Tan,C.S.,Ng,S.T.,YeannieYap,H.Y.,Lee,S.S.,Lee,M.L.,Fung,S.Y.,Tan,N.H.,Sim, S.M., 2012.Breathing new life to a Malaysia lost national treasure—the Tiger- Milk mushroom (*Lignosus rhinocerotis*). In:Zhang,J.Wang,H.Chen,M.(Eds.), Mushroom ScienceXVIII:Proceedings of the 18th Congress of the International Society for Mushroom Science. Beijing:China Agriculture Press, pp. 66–71.).

## External links

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