The Polyporus Resources Research

Polyporus umbellatus (Pers.) Fries which belongs to fungus is a traditional Chinese medicine. With water permeate activity, its dry sclerotia has been used for the treatment of dysuria, edema, diarrhea and vaginal embolism diseases for more than 2,500 years. Modern pharmacologic researches show that Polyporus possesses many activities including enhancing immunity, anticancer, resistance of radiation, prevention and treatment of hepatitis properties.Polyporus is widely distributed in China, and the main areas include Shaanxi, Yunnan, Shanxi and Sichuan province. Traditionally, Polyporus in Yunnan possesses the largest output, while that in Shaanxi possesses the best quality. Recently, its wild resources become increasingly extinct due to over-excavation. However, artificial cultivation technology is not yet mature and subject to many natural conditions, resulting in the market supply of Polyporus is gradually declining.This study investigated the wild and artificial Polyporus resources respectively by means of investigating on spot and visiting in the 8 provinces (including Shaanxi, Yunnan and so on) involving 20 cities,28 counties and 39 towns. We surveyed the distribution, ecological environment, soil conditions, associated plant species, local climate, elevation, aspect and methods of excavation of wild Polyporus, and the growing region, site selection, breeding and preservation, selection of bacteria sticks and rods, planting methods and capacity, field management and harvest processing of the artificial resources. Additionally, we also visited four major medicine markets (e.g. Lotus Pond medicine market in Chengdu of Sichun prov.) to investigate the source, destination, types and price fluctuation, annual sales, existing volume, counterfeit goods of the market Polyporus. The main results are as follows:1. Through the survey of wild Polyporus, we found that most of the wild Polyporus grow in the areas with the altitude about 1000-2000m and a sunny slope of 20 to 50°. The vegetation are mainly broad-leaved forest, mixed forest and bamboo forest, with scattered sunshine, fertile moist, rich humus, frequently microbial activities and good drainage.2. Investigations and studies indicated that the input and output ratio could reach to 1:10 about four years after planting with appropriate field management, using the biennials, flexible and complete grey sclerotia with the white freshly cross-section, no mildew and disease as the species,1 kg Polyporus and one bottle of Armillaria(500 g) per nest, and oak branches and Cyclobalanopsis tree as the bacteria rods and sticks respectively. 3. Five easy handing digging skills were summarized including digging the Polyporus depending on flower and cropout, digging in the previous hole, digging depending on the fungus aroma in the soil or more hallimasch, and "viewing the mountain and vegetation'4. The cultivated area and annual production of artificial Polyporus, and the reserves of wild resources were primarily analyzed. Till to the end of November in 2010, there were about 525 million artificial cultivated nestes. The annual excavation was proximately 243-245 tons, and the reserves of wild resource was about 1100-1145 tons.5. The investigation on the four medicine markets indicated that the stock of Polyporus was about 90-100 tons. Most of the market Polyporus were wild species with less counterfeit, except for about 20%-30% cultivated products in Wan Shou medicinal market in Xi'an. The majority of products were selled to the surrounding hospitals, pharmacies and decoction factories, while the minority were exported to Japan. The price of Polyporus rises continually with a big rising space for the reduction of the wild resources.6. Through analyzing the reason causing resources depletion of wild Polyporus and the present situation of artificial cultivation, seven measures for developing and protecting of the existing Polyporus resource were put forward after deeply thinking, including standardizing planting base, increasing product development, accelerating talents training, technology to the countryside, and establishing the information interactive platform.