LIFEPHARMS'
Fungal Collection

1. Ascomycota
2. Basidiomycota
3. Chytridiomycota
4. Zygomycota

Taxonomically, fungi represent a separate kingdom with equal taxomonic status as Plantea and Animalia.

Fungi are usually classified in four divisions: the Chytridiomycota (chytrids, water fungi), Zygomycota (Rhizopus and other bread molds), Ascomycota (yeast, most lichen-associated fungi and some “mushrooms), and the Basidiomycota (most mushrooms). The major divisions are based on their method of producing sexual spores. The above groups produce oospores, zygospores, ascospores and basidiospores, respectively. The shape and internal structure of the sporangia, which produce the spores, are the most useful character for identifying these various major groups.

Previous drug discovery efforts with fungi have focused on easily cultured species loosely classified as molds. These are fungal organisms that grow as long interwoven hyphae filaments. The sexual spores are produced on the tips of the growth filaments. Molds originate from Zygomycota and to a lesser extent from Ascomycota and Basidiomycota.

NATURAL
Product Libraries

NATURAL PRODUCT EXPERTISE

LifePharms can provide its collaborators the assurance that our collection avoids many resupply problems. Our samples are frequently in large sample amounts and LifePharms frequently has multiple collections of the identical species. In addition, LifePharms is able to provide:

• Accurate identification of species’ names
• Precise information regarding location of samples
• Resupply with the aid of a large network of collectors
• Information about related species that are also in LifePharms’ collection

LIFEPHARMS' PROCESS Preparation of Natural Product Extracts Collection of mushroom samples and preparation of extracts for biological assays.

Fruiting bodies are collected, identified and catalogued. They are frozen as soon as possible after collection and kept frozen until extracted. The identifying and collecting are done by mycologists who are experts in identifying fungi from the region of the country where they were collected. LifePharms, Inc. has worked with many mycologists throughout North America . Because of the detailed information that we have on each sample, all of the species can be resupplied from their original region in a collecting season given normal weather conditions. Fruiting bodies are assigned to species or to a species group. The application of the biological species concept to fungi is complicated by the difficulties in mating and in assessing its outcome. As a result, field mycologists depend on morphological characteristics and differences among them. Some mycologists consider individuals with certain field characteristics as the same species even though there are minor differences among them. Other mycologists believe the minor differences define separate species. Each approach has it proponents, but has lead to the concept of species groups. These are species that probably contain several distinct species, especially when they are from different geographic areas. For this reason, if an activity is identified, it may be important to recollect the species from the same area of the country. In fact, researchers at LifePharms have found that different collections of the same species do produce different biological and chemical profiles.

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