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Calvatia craniformis- Chinese herbal supplements and Chinese food for health

Calvatia craniformis is a species of Puff balls-ha of the family Agaricaceae. It grows in Asia, Australia and North America, where it grows on the ground in open woods. The epithet of its name refers to the resemblance of this fungus with the brain of an animal. The sporophore crâniforme, white to tan, measuring 8 to 20 cm wide and 6 to 20 in height. First smooth skin wrinkles, cracks and flakes off over time. It finally fell to expose a brittle gleba ranging from brownish yellow to greenish yellow. This puffball is edible when gleba is still firm and white, before it becomes brittle and brownish yellow. Ripe mushroom serves as hemostatic in folk or traditional medicine in China, Japan and Ojibwa.

Description

Bunch of fruit bodies found in New Zealand

The fruit body Calvatia craniiformis reached 6 to 20 cm high and 8 to 20 cm wide and is pear-shaped, elongated obovoid or turbinate. The base of the fungus, thick, is fixed to an often inlaid rhizomorph of the surrounding land. Rhizomorphs are well developed and have, in longitudinal section, three distinct tissues: an outer cortex, subcortical layer and a heart. The exopéridium thin and fragile is gray to whitish gray and smooth at first before becoming aréolé (divided into separate areas by grooves). Gleba is whitish at first, then yellow and finally brownish olive green when the spores are ripe.

Spores hyaline spheres are between 2.5 to 3.4 microns in diameter. In the thick wall, they have a short pédicelle10 and are decorated with small spines roughly equidistant from each other. The filaments of capillitium (in) long, hyaline and branching, measure from 2.4 to 4 microns thick. They are septate and sometimes have recesses in their wall. The exopéridium comprises thick-walled swollen hyphae mixed with sphérocystes, while endopéridium consists of hyphae thick wall closely intertwined. In rhizomorphs, hyphae of the heart are several times thicker than those of the surrounding sub-cortical layers.

Optical microscope, the spores of C. craniiformis generally do not differ from those of C. rubroflava and C. gigantea (giant Vesse-ha). Electron microscopy reveals that each of these species is distinguished by the ornamentation of its spores. Those of C. craniiformis have small warts 0.2 microns tall, well separated, with rounded tips. By comparison, the warts to those of C. gigantea measure up to 0.4 microns high and are arranged irregularly.

Development

New sporophores consist, on the outside, hyphae thick similar to those of heart rhizomorphs; by contrast, hyphae of the interior are from the heart of the puffball. As we age, the dry peridium and falls in flakes to expose the underlying gleba.

Calvatia craniformis medical use as dietary supplements

Calvatia craniiformis is edible when gleba is firm and white, which is not the case that the specimen illustrated.

C. craniiformis is an edible species. Puff balls Young-ha which gleba is white and firm have a sweet smell and a pleasant flavor. In 1912, the mycologist Charles McIlvaine (in) indicated that any yellowing of the puffball made her bitter. It is suitable for various uses in cooking and absorbs the flavors.

In the US, the Ojibwa used the friable gleba as a hemostatic to stop the nosebleed: powder spores were inhaled through the nose. We now know that this practice may cause lycoperdonose (in), pulmonary disease manifested by symptoms similar to those of pneumonia.

Calvatia craniformis also serves as a hemostatic in traditional Chinese medicine and Kampo medicine.