Anticancer Effects of Taiwanofungus camphoratus Extracts, Isolated Compounds and its Combinational use

Taiwanofungus camphoratus is an indigenous mushroom in Taiwan, which has been used as a traditional medicine to treat many health-related problems. Several biological activities have been reported on T. camphoratus ranging from anti-inflammatory antihypertension to anticancer and so on. Cancer is a major cause of death in Taiwan, and unfortunately, there is no satisfied treatment presently. Thus, a review article about the anticancer effect of T. camphoratus would be a great importance. This article reviews anticancer activities being performed with crude extracts and isolated compounds from T. camphoratus and their synergistic effects. The source of T. camphoratus might be from its fruiting bodies, mycelia, and fermented culture broth and be extracted from water, methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate, or chloroform, which showed versatile anticancer activities. In addition, various compounds have been further purified from these extracts, such as terpenoids, maleic and succinic acids derivatives, polysaccharides, and other compounds, and they also showed potent cytotoxicity. Besides, T. camphoratus not only has cytotoxic effect but also produces synergistic anticancer effect with trichostatin A, lovastatin, and taxol. It is concluded that T. camphoratus could be considered as a potential anticancer agent to make cancer no longer a frightening nightmare. However, clinical trials of T. camphoratus on human subjects are absent, and the involved mechanism remains unclear. Hence, further investigations would be required.