I need a mushroom, used as a contraceptive, identified from a description in a book (1 Viewer)

I am writing a term paper about medically relevant mushrooms and I need to find the scientific name for this mushroom, but all I have is a description from the book Mushrooms, Molds, and Miracles written by Lucy Kavaler, copyright 1965. It is a mushroom that grows in New Guinea that is or has been used as a contraceptive. It grows on old tree stumps 6000 feet up the slopes of the mountains. Women eat them to prevent conception. I could really use this for my paper, if anyone has any knowledge about it. Thanks.

An active ingedient in oral contraceptives is diosgenin which is found in yams, fenugreek and other organic material. I'd start your search there.

Welcome to BirdForum Fawcey from those of us on staff here.

I can assure you that you will have many suggestions from our knowledgeable members within the next 24 hours.

Hi Fawcey,

Welcome to Birdform and its many fora!

On a google search for "mushroom" and "contraceptive" I found Maitake Mushroom which is supposed to act as a contraceptive.

Hi Fawcey,

I am tempted to suggest that anything that requires women to climb to 6000 ft will reduce their chances of getting pregnant, unless they take male companionship with them of course.
Maybe the New Guinea version of "Sorry dear, I have a headache," is "Sorry dear, I have to climb to 6000 ft and eat a mushroom..."?

To attempt to be more helpful, I have looked in a few books and not found anything I am afraid.

The mention of maitake may be a bit of a red herring. True a Google search will bring up mentions of maitake, but it is important to examine the context . There are too many references to wade through, but my impression is that while maitake is often mentioned on webpages that also mention contraceptives, these are general medical (or pseudo-medical) pages covering a number of topics on the same page (and often attempting to sell potions of one sort or another). A lot of the web pages are of the type that we warn our own students against uncritically accepting.

Maitake does appear to have properties of use in treating tumours, excess blood protein and maybe high blood pressure, so it might well be relevant to your assignment. A possibly useful weblink is:
http://www.cancer-articles.com/canc...tate-cancer/prostate-cancer-article-2775.html

Maitake is Grifola frondosa, a bracket fungus that grows on beech (Fagus) and other trees and which seems to occur worldwide. Here in the UK I have regularly been driving past a fine colony where a beech has been felled. (Not seen anyone trying to eat it though.)

Coming back to your original question - I wonder how reliable the original information is? It might well be hearsay - a vague story that the author has heard and decided to use but has no foundation in fact anyway?

Hi Fawcey, Welcome!

1965 huh? New Guinea?

May be that the translating was done by a missionary trying to tone it down.... could be that this ?fungus? was used to trigger an abortion?

Andy.

I thank you all for your input. I will try this information. The book is not by a missionary, but by a researcher. She is not toning down the language, she just writes like that. There are several other such descriptions without names, but this is the only one of use to my paper. She talkes about the ugly ear shaped mushroom from China, but never says Jew's ear, or Auricularia. Strange and slightly annoying. Anyway, thanks for all your help, and if there are any more suggestions please add them. You are all fascinating. I posted a message and in 24 hours I had replies, amazing. Scotland even, wow. Thanks.

sometimes things get lost in translation could have been near a mushroom growing or sounded like a plant... but I'm curious on the same topic... Ethnobotany in the US suggests many fungi for after bearing children -to stop bleeding and heal internal and external wounds.. very interesting topic as of late.

anything that is extremely acidic (when used internally) a vaginal insert could shed the uterus lining achieving this.. which leads me to wonder which are acidic without causing death.

walwyn said:

An active ingedient in oral contraceptives is diosgenin which is found in yams, fenugreek and other organic material. I'd start your search there.

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or find one that makes your breath really bad

RoxyK411 said:

sometimes things get lost in translation could have been near a mushroom growing or sounded like a plant... but I'm curious on the same topic... Ethnobotany in the US suggests many fungi for after bearing children -to stop bleeding and heal internal and external wounds.. very interesting topic as of late.

anything that is extremely acidic (when used internally) a vaginal insert could shed the uterus lining achieving this.. which leads me to wonder which are acidic without causing death.

Click to expand...

Just going to jump in here to wish you a warm welcome back from those of us on staff here at BirdForum