Medicinal mushroom found to be an effective natural treatment for bronchial asthma

(Natural News) The medicinal mushroom called Grifola gargal — better known as gargal — has been used to naturally prevent and treat chronic inflammatory diseases. Now, research has found that it is also an effective remedy for allergic diseases, such as allergic bronchial asthma. The study, published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, looked at the effect of gargal extract on allergic diseases, particularly allergic bronchial asthma by using laboratory testing and clinical studies.

To test this theory, the study looked at human mast cell and eosinophilic cell lines. Researchers from Mie University, Shizuoka University, and Iwade Research Institute of Mycology in Japan used an asthma animal model by inducing ovalbumin in mice. The team then fed the mice with either a standard diet or one containing gargal extract.

The team discovered that gargal extract greatly reduced airway hyperresponsiveness, lung eosinophilic infiltration, lung interleukin (IL)-13 expression, and plasma IgE level. At the same time, it substantially increased IL-10 plasma levels and spleen regulatory T cells. The gargal extract treatment also significantly suppressed the expression of cytokines in mast cells and eosinophils compared with control cells.

These results indicated that gargal extract increases the lung population of regulatory T cells and reduces allergic inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness in mice with allergic bronchial asthma.

Based on the findings, the research team concluded that gargal extract can be an effective natural remedy for allergic bronchial asthma.