Low quality fresh ginseng was fermented by Pheliuus linteus mycelium at 22℃ for 30 days, then extracted by water solvent at 100℃ for 180 min. On human normal cell lines (HEK293), cytotoxicity was about 10% lower in adding extracts of the fermentation ginseng than that from low quality ginseng. The fermented extracts also inhibited the growth of several human cancer cells. Among them, respectively, digestive organs related cancer cells, such as human stomach adenocarcnioma and human epithelial adenocarcinoma were most effectively inhibited up to 85% and 90%, respectively. Then, selectivities were in the ranges of 3 to 5, compared to 2 to 3 from low quality fresh ginseng. Generally, fermented ginseng extract showed higher anticancer activities as well as higher DPPH radical sacavening activity, possibly due to high contents of total phenolic components as 6.96 mg/g. It was very interesting that the fermented ginseng contained very higher contents of ginsenoside-Rc+Rb2, compared to others in low quality fresh ginseng because of partition digestion of mycelium growth. The results can tell that low quality fresh ginseng can be utilized by the fermentation with Pheliuus linteus mycelium.
The low quality fresh ginseng was fermented by Phelinus linteus or Hericium erinaceum mycelium. This fermented ginseng was extracted by water at 100℃ or water with ultrasonification at 60℃. Total phenolic compounds was improved by ultrasonification extraction process, compare to conventional water extraction. All extracts enhanced the growth of human B and T cells, showing 2.68 times and 3.43 times higher, respectively, than the control. The secretion of TNF-α and IL-6 from human immune cells was enhanced as 3.53×10-4 pg/cell, 3.40×10-4 pg/cell by adding H. erinaceum mycelium fermented ginseng. H. erinaceum mycelium fermented ginseng yielded higher nitric oxide production from macrophage than Lipopolysaccharides (LPS). The cytotoxicity on human normal kidney cell (HEK293) was as low as 20.5% in adding the maximum concentration of 1.0 mg/ml of fermented ginseng. Generally, the extracts from ultrasonification extraction process showed 10% lower toxicity than that by conventional process. H. erinaceum mycelium fermented ginseng had the highest anticancer activity on human lung cancer and stomach cancer cells as 69.33% and 75.32%, respectively at 1.0 mg/ml. It can be concluded that, in general, H. erinaceum mycelium fermented ginseng has relatively better immune and anticancer activities than P. linteus fermented ginseng. Expecially, the extracts treated with ultrasonification had higher activities than that from conventional extraction process.