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Review
. 2022 Jun 20;13(3):207-211.
doi: 10.1080/21501203.2022.2089755. eCollection 2022.

What is the correct scientific name for "Fuling" medicinal mushroom?

Viktor Papp  1 , Yu-Cheng Dai  2
Affiliations
Review

What is the correct scientific name for "Fuling" medicinal mushroom?

Viktor Papp et al. Mycology. .

Abstract

In recent years, the scientific names of many cultivated and well-known medicinal fungal species have been changed. However, the results of taxonomic and nomenclature works on these economically important fungi are often overlooked or ignored in applied researches. The incorrect use of scientific names may cause uncertainty in research and in the global medicinal mushroom market. In this paper, we briefly review the current taxonomy and nomenclature of "Fuling" medicinal mushroom and make a proposal for biochemists, pharmacists and businessmen on the correct use of scientific names related to this species. Based on the recent taxonomic results and nomenclatural proposals, the use of the names Wolfiporia extensa, W. cocos and especially Poria cocos for the "Fuling" mushroom are incorrect and misleading; therefore, the acceptance of the names Pachyma hoelen or Wolfiporia hoelen is recommended.

Keywords: Hoelen; Pachyma; Poria; Wolfiporia; nomenclature; taxonomy.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The popularity of scientific names related to “Fuling” mushroom based on the PubMed and Google Scholar databases. In the PubMed database, the search was based on title/abstract; and for the name “Poria cocos”, the following criterion was used: (“poria cocos” [Title/Abstract]) NOT (wolfiporia [Title/Abstract]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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