Jackie Scanlon: Post number two

It’s Jackie again, and for my second blog I am going to talk about some interesting facts about fungi. I never knew how many different kinds of fungi there are including fungi that are useful to humans and those that can cause disease and illness.

Here are some basic facts about fungi that. There are about 74,000 named species and most of these are multicellular (reference). Fungi were listed in the plant kingdom for many years until it was found that fungi are more similarly related to animals, and then they were placed into their own kingdom. When you see a fungus you are only seeing the fruit of the organism, the rest of the organism is underground.

Fungi can be helpful or harmful. Some of the harmful things that fungi create are infections, and some of the helpful things are food and vitamins. Below I will talk about some examples of how fungi can be helpful or harmful.

Some human fungal infections are: Athletes foot, oral thrush, and ringworm. The first step in treating fungal infections is prevention. In order to avoid getting an infection you need to maintain good hygiene including not sharing any personal items with someone else. You can also go to your doctor and get antifungal medicine to help get rid of the infection if it is really needed.

It has been said that Enokitake mushrooms have been believed to fight cancer. That idea was first thought of when scientists in Japan found that a community that had eaten a lot of the mushrooms had low cancer rates.

You most likely use a type of fungal product everyday without realizing it because there are so many different ways to use or eat fungi. Some examples of fungal products you eat other than straight mushrooms are, yeasts that are used to make bread, wine and beer. Some drugs are made from fungi and are used to cure diseases. Also fungi are used to create flavorings for cooking or to make vitamins.

Some other fun facts are written below:

· Archaeologists say that people have been enjoying the products of fungi for at least 25,000 years.’

· To prevent your food from molding you need to freeze it at a temperature of -18 degrees Celsius. This is because some molds can continue growing to temperatures of -7 degrees Celsius.

· It can take 50-100 years for fungi growing on a tree trunk to reduce the trunk to dust.