WebMD Medical News Daniel J. DeNoon Louise Chang, MD Feb. 3,
2009 - Edible mushrooms counteract the medication-altering
effects of grapefruit juice, USDA researchers report. Aside from
being tasty, grapefruit juice is pretty darn good for you. It's
full of antioxidants and other beneficial compounds. There's
some evidence it may even help protect against cancer and heart
disease. But there's a downside to grapefruit juice. It carries
a class of compounds that inhibit the liver enzymes your body
needs to eliminate many widely used medications. This
grapefruit/drug interaction increases the risk of drug side
effects. Recently, USDA researcher Kyung Myung, PhD, and
colleagues found that an inedible fungus somehow absorbs the
compounds responsible for the grapefruit/drug interaction. Now
Myung's team has found that an edible mushroom -- Morchella
esculenta, better known as the yellow morel -- does the same
thing. And, to a slightly lesser extent, so do other edible
fungi. So far, the list includes an oyster mushr