Methods for the Prevention and Control of Diseases and Pests of Lion's Mane Mushroom and Key Technical Points

Lion's Mane Mushroom (scientific name: Hericium erinaceus; English names: Lion's Mane Mushroom, Bearded Tooth Mushroom), also called monkey head fungus, is named simply because its shape closely resembles a monkey's head. Monkey mushroom, monkey head, monkey fungus - it is a traditional precious Chinese dish, with tender flesh, fragrant aroma and delicious taste. It is one of the four famous dishes (monkey head mushroom, bear's paw, bird's nest, shark's fin). It has the reputation of “monkey head of the mountain delicacies, shark's fin of the sea flavors.” This fungus of the family Hericiaceae has hairy, fleshy spines about 1-3 cm long on the surface of its cap. Its fruiting body is round and thick, white when fresh, and light yellow to light brown after drying, with a narrow base or a slightly short stalk, and an enlarged upper part 3.5-10 cm in diameter. Seen from a distance it resembles a golden monkey's head, hence the name “Lion's Mane Mushroom”; it also looks like a hedgehog, hence it is also called “hedgehog fungus.” Lion's Mane Mushroom is an incomparably delicious mountain delicacy, with tender flesh and a rich, mellow, tasty flavor, and has the reputation of “the meat among vegetables.”

As a food ingredient, Lion's Mane Mushroom makes a delicious dish. At the same time, Lion's Mane Mushroom is also a medicinal material. The medicine made from this medicinal material is called Monkey Mushroom Tablets, recorded on page 207 of Volume 15 of the “Drug Standards of the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China”: “This product is a tablet made from processed Lion's Mane Mushroom, with the effect of nourishing the stomach and harmonizing the middle, used for the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers and chronic gastritis.” In addition, many studies in modern medicine and pharmacology summarize the medicinal effects of Lion's Mane Mushroom polysaccharides as improving immunity, anti-tumor, anti-aging, lowering blood lipids and various other physiological functions.

Traditional Chinese medicine holds that Lion's Mane Mushroom is neutral in nature and sweet in taste, with effects such as benefiting the five internal organs, aiding digestion and nourishing the body. Since the 1970s, modern medicine has successively proven that Lion's Mane Mushroom has good medicinal value. Clinical application shows that Lion's Mane Mushroom can treat diseases such as indigestion, gastric ulcer, antral gastritis, stomach pain, stomach bloating and neurasthenia. For patients with mild neurasthenia, eating Lion's Mane Mushroom is a fairly good adjunctive treatment. In clinical application, using Lion's Mane Mushroom for treatment can achieve relatively significant and ideal results for both mild and severe neurasthenia. In addition, patients should cultivate good living habits, such as taking more walks after dinner and exercising more often, all of which are very helpful for the recovery of symptoms.

Prevention and Control of Diseases and Pests of Lion's Mane Mushroom

Diseases and pests are problems often encountered in Lion's Mane Mushroom production. Most are caused by extensive operation and management, poor environmental hygiene, and high-temperature, high-humidity climate conditions. The main contaminating fungi are Penicillium, Trichoderma, Aspergillus, Mucor, Rhizopus and so on. Pests include mites, fungus flies, springtails and so on.

In prevention and control, in addition to strictly sterilizing the culture medium, keeping the environment clean and hygienic, and disinfecting the cultivation room, attention should be paid during cultivation management to regulating the temperature, humidity and ventilation conditions of the cultivation room. When fungal contamination appears, it should be dealt with promptly. When the bottle surface of bottle cultivation is contaminated by fungi, the contaminated part together with the culture medium should be promptly dug out, filled with new culture medium, and re-sterilized and re-inoculated; if a small amount of dotted fungal contamination appears on the bottle surface, kill it by scalding with an alcohol cotton ball or a heated iron piece, then spray 0.2% carbendazim solution for control. If local fungal contamination appears in plastic bags, inject a mixed solution of 2% formaldehyde and 5% carbolic acid into the infected area to control its spread, and the uninfected areas  can still normally grow fruiting bodies. For material bags seriously contaminated by fungi, they should be promptly moved out and burned to prevent spores from spreading. For pests, mainly use dichlorvos solution mixed with honey or sweet-and-sour wheat bran for trapping and killing, or spray 0.4% trichlorfon and 0.1% derris extract after each batch of fruiting bodies is harvested for prevention and control; 1% dichlorvos and 0.2% dimethoate can also be sprayed on the ground and wall bases to repel and kill pests.

How to identify poisonous wild mushrooms: Judging by the appearance characteristics of wild fungi, ① those with strange shapes and bright colors are poisonous; ② those with spines or warts on the cap, and with both an annulus and a volva on the stalk, are poisonous; ③ those whose stalks (roots) do not breed maggots or insects, are not pecked by birds, and are not eaten by rats or beasts, are poisonous; ④ those that smell foul, have no mushroom fragrance, and taste pungent or extremely bitter, are poisonous; ⑤ those whose fruiting bodies change color at wounded sites and whose juice is cloudy, are poisonous (except for common fungi such as jianshouqing and heijianshou); ⑥ wild fungi growing in dark, damp and filthy places are sometimes toxic; ⑦ those that turn black when boiled together with scallions, garlic, rice, silverware or lamp wicks, are poisonous, and so on. Practice has proven that this experience is not absolute. Because many edible fungi and toxic fungi are very similar, some edible wild fungi may also show these phenomena. Experts point out that identifying toxic fungi and edible fungi based on traditional experience and methods is also a cause of poisoning from mistakenly eating toxic fungi. Therefore, as for all wild mushrooms, the public had best not pick or eat them.  If poisonous wild fungi are eaten by mistake and poisoning symptoms appear, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, restlessness, numbness of the limbs, difficulty breathing, inappropriate laughing and crying, and so on, emergency measures should be taken immediately, and the patient should be sent to the nearest hospital for diagnosis and treatment. The earlier the treatment, the lower the mortality rate. Taking measures such as inducing vomiting, gastric lavage, catharsis and enema to reduce the absorption of toxins are the main measures to alleviate the condition and reduce the mortality rate.