Dr. Mushroom

 Sign up for The Matrix Newsletter
 by filling out the form below.

May 13, 2008

Beneficial Uses for Mushrooms Continues to Expand

Multiple nutritional and health benefits are what first caused people to show an interest in mushrooms, but the beneficial uses of mushrooms continues to expand. A growing number of researchers are even experimenting with the use of mushrooms for cleaning up the environment.

From toxins in soil to oil spills, mushrooms are showing that they have an appetite for many of the things that pose a threat to the environment. One of the more recent successes in the use of mushrooms as environmental vacuum cleaners has occurred in the San Francisco Bay area.

After a November 2007 oil spill in the Bay washed ashore, researchers went to work testing the ability of oyster mushrooms to clean up the mess. Mushroom biologists, working with the non-profit Matter of Trust organization, set up an experiment with oyster mushrooms on the oil-contaminated soil. What they've found over these past months is that the mushrooms work rather well. Not only did they sprout in the contaminated soil, but as they did, they cleaned pollutants from the soil.

The Bay area experiment is just one of several performed in recent years that have shown the ability of mushrooms to break down toxins into harmless matter. With their multiple nutritional benefits and toxic clean-up powers, mushrooms may just become the Earth's environmental savior.