The Poria Cocos extract is sourced from the dried sclerotium of the Poria cocosWolf. The main ingredient of the Poria Cocos extract is triterpene and polysaccharide, which has the functions of strengthening the spleen, calming the nerves, clearing damp and promoting diuresis. It is used for the treatment of spleen deficiency, edema and oliguria. Modern pharmacological studies have shown that Poria Cocos extract has a pharmacological effect of inhibiting the growth of splenomegaly and enhancing immunity. Nowadays, Poria Cocos extract has become an important type of therapeutic diet with diverse consumption methods.
The Poria Cocos extract can also be called Pachymaran. Based on the soluble characteristic of polysaccharide in water and insoluble property in alcohol, Pachymaran is extracted with water as a solvent and then dried to form a powder. Poria cocosWolf is a kind of natural medicinal fungus, and the main useful ingredient is polysaccharide. Due to the low content of polysaccharide in the Poria cocosWolf entity and the poor absorption in body, the contemporary technology is focused on the biological characteristics of the useful ingredients in Poria cocosWolf to obtain high content of polysaccharide product, so it is called Pachymaran or Poria Cocos extract. Relatively speaking, the content of active ingredients in Poria Cocos extract is higher in the range of 20-50% than that of Poria Cocos. In addition, the fiber content in dry products is high, and can’t be easily absorbed by the human body to express the efficacy. To achieve health benefits, it requires a number of processes such as extraction and concentration.
Chemical Composition
Poria Cocos extract contains polysaccharides, triterpenoids and fatty acids, where the pachymose is the main component with a content of 84.2%. It is also reported that β-pachyman is a main component, accounting for about 93% in dry products. The triterpenoids comprise pachymic acid, humic acid, citric acid, perforate, rosin, rosin acid and so on. Fatty acids consist of caprylic acid and lauric acid. There also include ergosterol, gum, chitin, protein, fat, lecithin and other ingredients. Modern experiments have shown that Pachymaran can enhance the phagocytic capacity of peritoneal macrophages, and can promote the humoral immune function of mice by increasing the number of white blood cells in thymus, lymph nodes and peripheral blood. The combination of Pachymaran and anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs in the prevention and treatment of tumors can reduce the toxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs, and the tumor inhibition rate can reach 61% to 100%.
Pharmacological Action
Poria cocosWolf is a novel aldosterone receptor antagonist, which is good for urine discharge, kidney function restoration and protein elimination. Pachymaran can effectively inhibit the formation and deposition of calcium oxalate crystals in rat kidney, and has a good anti-calculus effect. The triterpenoids in Poria Cocos extract could enhance the differentiation-inducing activity of insulin, and the triterpenoid itself also has this activity. Triterpenoids and their derivatives inhibit vomiting caused by oral administration of copper sulfate. Poria Cocos extract also have impact on immune function by increasing the cytotoxic effect of macrophages and T lymphocytes, as well as enhancing the number of mouse spleen antibody secreting cells and acidic non-specific esterase-positive lymphocytes.
Poria Cocos extract can accelerate the recovery of leukopenia, increase the red blood cells of healthy humans by about 25%, and effectively delay the depletion of blood cells during the incubation process. Poria Cocos extract shows a synergism of strontium with sodium pentobarbital. This synergy may be due to their central inhibition, or it may hinder the decomposition and excretion of pentobarbital and prolong the anesthesia time. Poria cocos extract also has obvious antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant, anti-tumor and anticancer effect. Blood sugar can be lowered by Poria cocosWolf, thus having a certain therapeutic effect for people with high blood sugar. Poria Cocos extract can enhance the activity and vitality of cell tissues, keeping their health, so that our skin and hair appear more moisturized and achieve a cosmetic effect. Moreover, Poria cocosWolf has a significant inhibitory effect on tyrosinase in a competitive inhibition manner. Decreasing the amount of melanin production by inhibiting tyrosinase activity may be one of the mechanisms of action of whitening medicine.
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