Chemical Content and Cytotoxic Activity on Various Cancer Cell Lines of Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) Growing on Betula pendula and Betula pubescens

Abstract

Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) is a pathogenic fungus that grows mostly on birch species (Betula pendula Roth and B. pubescens Ehrh.) and has traditionally been used as an anticancer medicine. This study aimed to compare the chemical composition and cytotoxic activity of chagas growing on both Betula spp. on various cancer cell lines. The freeze-dried extracts contained triterpenes inotodiol, lanosterol betulin, and betulinic acid typical to conks growing on Betula species. The cytotoxic activity of chaga growing on Betula pendula and B. pubescens 80% ethanolic extracts against 31 human cancer cell lines was evaluated by a sulforhodamine B assay. Chaga extract showed moderate activity against all cancer cell lines examined; it did not result in high cytotoxicity (IC50 ≤ 20 µg/mL). The strongest inhibitions were observed with chaga (growing on B. pendula) extract on the HepG2 and CAL-62 cell line and with chaga (from B. pubescens) extract on the HepG2 cell line, with IC50 values of 37.71, 43.30, and 49.99 μg/mL, respectively. The chaga extracts from B. pendula exert somewhat stronger effects on most cancer cell lines studied than B. pubescens extracts, which can be attributed to a higher content of inotodiol in B. pendula extracts. This study highlights the potential of chaga as a source of bioactive compounds with selective anticancer properties. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first investigation of the chemical composition of I. obliquus parasitizing on B. pubescens.