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   Oct 08

Chengdu man finds rare ‘taisui’ medicinal fungus

An organism caught by a man in Chengdu is believed to be what is known in China as “taisui,” a kind of fungus that is described in a traditional herbal medicine book as having life-prolonging effects.

The man, surnamed Liang, found the 7-kilo yellow organism with black spots and a “tail” of nearly 30 centimeters, in a stream near his home on Sept. 28.

Sun Chun, a professor of microbiology at Sichuan University, said that judging from the photos he received, the organism is likely to be taisui but added that further tests would be needed to confirm the identification.

Taisui is also known as rou lingzhi (“meat lingzhi mushroom) in the Compendium of Materia Medica, a book on Chinese medicine compiled in the 16th century, which said consuming it can prolong one’s life.

Since taisui is rare, it can fetch as much as US$39,500 per gram in China in its dried form.

Sun said taisui is a kind of fungus, while Northwest University in Xi’an has found such organisms have complete cell structures and can carry out metabolism.

The visitor center of the Huang’anba scenic area in Chongqing is reportedly displaying a taisui found there in March 2014. That specimen is white, 45 cm tall with a circumference of 65 cm and weighs 7.5 kg.

Source: Want China

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