Shiitake

Statema, B. C. P.

Fungus

Shiitake

Lentinula edodes

Known today as: A brown mushroom of oak logs, cultivated in China and Japan for about a thousand years.
Kind: Fungus
Constituents: lentinan, eritadenine, lenthionine
In other databases: GBIF search · Wikidata search

Shiitake: what was it used for?

Food and medicine in the East.

Shiitake: what does modern science say?

Its polysaccharide lentinan has been used in Japan in cancer treatment. Eaten raw or undercooked it can cause a whip-like rash.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

lentinan ChEMBLa β-glucan
eritadenine ChEMBLlowers cholesterol in animals
lenthionine ChEMBLthe flavour

Mechanism

Lentinan, injected, stirs the immune system and is licensed in Japan beside chemotherapy for gastric cancer; eaten raw or undercooked, the mushroom causes a whip-like rash, shiitake dermatitis, in a few people.

Toxic dose

Shiitake dermatitis from raw mushrooms, usually clearing in weeks.

Standing

A food; lentinan is a drug in Japan and China.

Nakamura, T. (1992). “Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) dermatitis.” Contact Dermatitis 27. Verified against its record · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0536.1992.tb05211.x
Ina, K., et al. (2013). “The use of lentinan for treating gastric cancer.” Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry 13. Verified against its record · doi:10.2174/1871520611313050002

The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.

Shiitake: what lore surrounds it?

Chinese tradition credits a Song dynasty woodsman with first learning to grow it on cut logs.

In Their Own Words

B. M. Duggar describes the Japanese Shiitake (Cortinellus Shiitake) as having been cultivated in this manner (on wood) for several centuries, sold fresh and also preserved for export, and says China offered a good market for dried mushrooms from Japan and New Zealand.

“The fungus has been cultivated in this manner for several centuries. It is sold as fresh product and is also preserved for the export trade. It is said that China offers a good market for dried mushrooms shipped both from Japan and New Zealand.”

B. M. Duggar, Mushroom Growing, Cortinellus, pp. 161–163. New York: Orange Judd Company; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Limited, 1915 (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part

Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.

Sources

National Cancer Institute, PDQ: Medicinal Mushrooms. Book, not indexed

Verification

Checked

October 1, 2026

Passes

Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database

Sources

3 cited: 2 verified against its record, 1 book, not indexed. 2 with the abstract on file.

Corrections

None were needed.

What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026

Chicago: “Shiitake.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 25, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/shiitake.
MLA: “Shiitake.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 25 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/shiitake. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Shiitake. (2026, September 25). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/shiitake

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