Updated
Zhu ling
A clustered polypore growing from a buried tuber. Used in East Asian medicine as a diuretic, and studied mostly in bladder-cancer maintenance in China.
A first trial
Where it stands: 2 registered trials in people, none of which has reported a result; 1 randomised trial, published in 1993.
What it is taken for
One tile per use. The line under each is how far the evidence for that use actually got, counted rather than argued.
What it has been tried for, and how far that has got
One row per use. The label is counted rather than argued — it is set by how many randomised trials and posted results exist for that use, and nothing else. How that is worked out.
| Use | How far it has got | Trials | With a result | Randomised, published | Reviews | Commonly taken for it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liver | A first trial | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | — |
| Viral infection | Being tested now | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Cancer, supportive and adjuvant | Being tested now | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | yes |
| Immune function | Being tested now | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Mood and anxiety | Being tested now | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Sleep | Being tested now | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Kidney | Laboratory work | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | yes |
| Fluid retention | Laboratory work | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | yes |
Commonly taken for kidney, fluid retention. The work there is still laboratory and animal work — often a great deal of it — and the step into a trial in people has not been taken yet.
The doses the protocols actually specify
Taken verbatim from the intervention description each trial filed. These are not recommendations and they are not comparable to each other: some are a whole-mushroom powder, some a purified fraction.
| Dose as filed | Study | Condition | People |
|---|---|---|---|
15 g | Effects of Shenkang Decoction on Creatinine and Blood Urea Nitrogen in Chronic R | Chronic Renal Failure, Hemodialysis | 160 |
20 g | Effects of Shenkang Decoction on Creatinine and Blood Urea Nitrogen in Chronic R | Chronic Renal Failure, Hemodialysis | 160 |
12 g | Effects of Shenkang Decoction on Creatinine and Blood Urea Nitrogen in Chronic R | Chronic Renal Failure, Hemodialysis | 160 |
10 g | Effects of Shenkang Decoction on Creatinine and Blood Urea Nitrogen in Chronic R | Chronic Renal Failure, Hemodialysis | 160 |
150 mL | Effects of Shenkang Decoction on Creatinine and Blood Urea Nitrogen in Chronic R | Chronic Renal Failure, Hemodialysis | 160 |
Every registered study that names it
From ClinicalTrials.gov, filtered to studies that name Polyporus umbellatus or a synonym in the title, summary or intervention. Studies that have posted results come first.
| Register | Study | Condition | People | Status | Result posted | Dose in the protocol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCT05631782 | Effects of Shenkang Decoction on Creatinine and Blood Urea Nitrogen in Chronic Renal Failure Hemodialysis Pati one ingredient in a multi-herb preparation | Chronic Renal Failure, Hemodialysis | 160 | Completed | — | 15 g, 20 g |
| NCT04821258 | Effect of the Nutraceutical "MICODIGEST 2.0" on the Complications After Surgery for Colorectal Cancer | Colorectal Cancer, Surgery--Complications | 48 | Completed | — | — |
| NCT04846010 | Recovering Damaged Cells for Sequelae Caused by COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 | Sequelae of; Infection, Post Infection Glomerulonephritis | 2000 | Unknown | — | — |
The compounds the research names
Formula and mass from PubChem. Naming a compound is not a claim that it does anything in a person.
C28H40O
What it looks like in the field
Research-grade observations, each by a different photographer. Every one links to the record it came from.
In the kitchen
Bitter and medicinal.
Not eaten. Decocted, and almost always inside a formula with other herbs rather than alone.
Where it has been recorded, and when it fruits
2,825 verified occurrence records with coordinates, from GBIF. This is where people have recorded it, which follows where recorders live as much as where the fungus grows — read the shape, not the ranking.
| United States | 641 | |
| Denmark | 389 | |
| Switzerland | 249 | |
| France | 205 | |
| Canada | 203 | |
| Sweden | 168 | |
| Russia | 152 | |
| Germany | 116 | |
| Ukraine | 100 | |
| Finland | 88 | |
| Austria | 86 | |
| Estonia | 79 |
Most records fall in Jul. Northern-hemisphere recorders dominate the dataset, so a southern population would not show here.
iNaturalist separately holds 1,254 research-grade observations of it.
What has been reported going wrong
No voluntary adverse-event report to the US Food and Drug Administration names a product by this name. That is an absence of reports, not a demonstration of safety: these are the products least likely to be reported on, because nobody is required to.
The newest randomised trials and reviews
Indexed in Europe PMC. Titles and journals only — follow the link to read the paper where the publisher allows it.
| Year | Study | Journal | Kind | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Chinese medicinal herbs for chronic hepatitis B: a systematic review | Liver | Review or meta-analysis | 26 |
| 2001 | Chinese medicinal herbs for chronic hepatitis B | Cochrane Database Syst Rev | Review or meta-analysis | 27 |
| 1993 | [Therapeutic effect of combined therapy of Salvia miltiorrhizae and Polyporus umbellatus polysaccharide in the treatment | Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi | Randomised trial | 3 |