Effects of Sparassis crispa in Medical Therapeutics: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

In this study, we investigated the therapeutic potential and medical applications of Sparassis crispa (S. crispa) by conducting a systematic review of the existing literature and performing a meta-analysis. The original efficacy treatment of the mushroom extract is considered primarily and searched in electronic databases. A total of 623 articles were assessed, 33 randomized controlled experiments were included after the manual screening, and some papers, review articles, or editorials that did not contain data were excluded. A comparative standard means difference (SMD) and a funnel plot between control and S. crispa groups were used as parameters to demonstrate the beneficial effects of S. crispa for diabetes and cancer treatment, as well as anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and antioxidant activities. The meta-analysis was carried out using Review Manager 5.1 software. Although for therapeutic diabetes there was heterogeneity in the subgroup analysis (I(2) = 91.9%), the overall results showed statistically significant SMDs in major symptoms that decreased serum insulin levels (SMD = 1.92, 95% CI (1.10, 2.75), I(2) = 0%), wound rates (SMD = 3.55 (2.56, 4.54), I(2) = 40%) and contributions to an increase in nutrient intake content (SMD = 0.32 (−0.15, 0.78), I(2) = 0%). Simultaneously, the study confirmed the utility of S. crispa treatment in terms of not only anti-cancer activity (reduction of tumor activity and survival of cancer cells I(2) = 42 and 34%, respectively) but also anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and antioxidant activities (I(2) = 50, 44, and 10%, respectively). Our findings suggest that S. crispa extracts are useful for prevention and treatment of human diseases and might be the best candidates for future medicines.