Why We Need Mushrooms

Image Gallery Paul Stamets with an Agarikon mushroom (Fomitopsis officinalis), a rare species with great medicinal potential because of its antimicrobial properties. DUSTY YAO

For the last 30 years Paul Stamets has collected, cultivated, studied and written about mushrooms. He’s the founder of Fungi Perfecti, a company that sells a variety of mushroom-related products, including kits for growing edible mushrooms. He’s also written several books, including Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, and Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World.  

Yep, you read that right: Stamets’ new book tells us how mushrooms can help save the world. If that idea sounds like a stretch, prepare to have your mind expanded. Stamets has done extensive research on the practical ways people can use mushrooms to heal ourselves and protect the planet. That includes studying mushrooms’ nutritional properties (many types are a great source of Vitamin D, among other vital nutrients), and their potential for developing new medicines (some species show promising antibacterial and antiviral properties) and cleaning up the environment (fungi can be used to help clean up oil spills and other types of soil and water contamination).

Stamets took the time to answer our questions about the health and environmental benefits of mushrooms. Here’s what he had to say about the fantastic world of fungi.

Mushrooms, Mycelium and the Planet

Your latest book is called Mycelium Running. First, what is mycelium exactly?

Mycelium is a network of fungal cells threaded together to form long, forking chains, creating a complex fabric of cells permeating virtually all land masses of Earth, from the tundra to the tropical rainforests.

How is mycelium related to mushrooms?

Mycelium is threadlike, but bundles up to form the structure of the mushroom, what we call the “fruiting body.” First the mycelium needs to dominate a territory, and only then does it pull its nutritional resources together to begin the construction of a mushroom.

You've written a lot about mushrooms being used for bioremediation, or naturally breaking down toxic compounds in the water and soil. What are some of the ways that mushrooms have been used to clean up polluted sites?

The mycelium of mushrooms are unique in their wood-decomposing enzymes, especially cellulases (which break down cellulose) and lignases (which break down lignin). Cellulose is the fibrous part of woody plants while lignin is the blocklike structure which the cellulose encases. These powerful enzymes are molecular disassemblars of not only plants, but complex chemicals.

There are dozens of examples of how mushrooms can be used for bioremediation, what we call “mycoremediation.” Mycelium of oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) can eat petroleum products, denaturing them, and the mycelium converts the hydrocarbons into cellular carbohydrates. Examples include using mycelium to break down oil, dioxins (and PCBs), as well as nerve gas toxins.