What if we could benefit from the properties of funghi through the skin?
Ziortza Aurrekoetxea
This book is a condensed sample of the first explorations carried out in the creation of new materials combining mycology, health and design.
Throughout the book you can see different lines of research in order to achieve the final purpose.
Get a perspective in which concepts such as innovation, biodegradable materials, zero waste, the circular economy, regeneration, recycling, consumer habits, modular fashion... are the basis of my decisions and actions.
Onddoak + means funghi in basque and the (plus) hints at the fact that funghi is much more than a material, they offer balance and health to the ecosystem and well-being.
The creation of this type of materials with a positive impact is essential and increasingly needed.
It is a speculative study in constant evolution in which I have been able to develop different biomaterials with their characteristics and properties through the extracts of medicinal mushrooms.
The plan is to create a topical transdermal tishu that transmits the medicinal properties of funghi.
The innovative approach of this project integrates natural resources, new materials, health and design.
This project has an important personal component because it reflects a family tradition. When I was a girl, my family would take me hunting for funghi and it became a nice tradition of being out in nature together. I feel very connected to nature, it is a great inspiration for me and this project.
Duration: 3 months (January-March)
Resources: BDC infrastructure, academic background, polymers, mycelium, funghi
Tools: Laser cutter, drying oven, Petri dishes, incubator, autoclave
Polymers:
Alginate (β-D-mannuronic (M) and α-L-guluronic (G) acids)
CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose) or carmellose
Agar (polymer of galactose subunits, heterogeneous mixture of agaropectin and agarose.
Glycerin (polyalcohol of a carbon chain of three carbon atoms and three hydroxyl groups)
Funghi: Pleurotus Ostreatus, Lentinula Edodes, Lactarius Deliciosus, Coprinus Comatus
Goal: Create a transdermal biomaterial that contains the properties of funghi and we can benefit from their medicinal effects through contact with the skin.
Applications: textile design, transdermal patches, accessories...
Non-substitutive complementary therapy
kind of funghi
Main compounds
Aim areas
Effects
Growing Season
Habitat
saprophyte
Lentinan
Lungs / Chest / Stomach / Liver
Anticancer
Antitumor
Promotes T4 cell growth
Antiviral
Inmune regulator
It is cultivated all year round, on wood and, in modern times, on synthetic blocks.
The wood of the Shii tree saprophytes. It is originally from the East.
Kind of funghi
Main compounds
Aim areas
Effects
Growing Season
Habitat
Basidiomycete
Pleuran
Liver / Heart
Anti-inflammatory Cholesterol reducers (Lovastatin)
Antihypertensives (beta-glucans)
Antidiabetic
Spring to Autumn. Floods old or cut log stumps, helping the wood to break down in the soil (ecological paper).
Saprophytic wood in deciduous forests (poplar, willow, beech), groves and coppices.
Kind of funghi
Main compounds
Aim areas
Basidiomycete
Lactarioviolina
Carotenoid
Kidney Effects
Antibiotic properties (Lactarioviolin) Indicator of renal activity (Carotenoid)
Tinctorial
Growing Season
Habitat
Summer and autumn
Associated with tree roots in coniferous or mixed forests, especially Insignis pine forests
Kind of funghi Basidiomycete
Main compounds
Aim areas
Effects
Growing Season
Habitat
Vanadium
Liver / Lung
Regulates sd. metabolic (Vanadium)
Hepatoprotective
Treatment of fungal and bacterial infections
Adjuvant cystic fibrosis and Enf. pulmonary degenerative
Summer and autumn
Open areas, meadows, ditches or roadsides, riverside trees. It is also cultivated. It usually comes out in large colonies.
There are different phases in self-cultivation processes. In this case, the phases to take into account would be the following:
1º Step: Spore extraction
2º Step: Inoculation
3º Step: Primordia formation
4º Step: Fruitbody development
5º Step: Cropping cycle
During the development of the project, the first two phases have mainly been developed.
Spore collection techniques vary, according to the shape, size, and type of the mushroom candidate. For gilled mushrooms, the cap can be severed from the stem, and laid, gills down, on top of clean typing paper, glass, or similar surface.
After 12 hours, most mushrooms will have released thousand of spores, sporeprint. They should be stored in a dark, cool location, low in humidity and free from temperature fluctuation.
Using fresh specimens, a more efficient method of spore collection is recommended. This method calls for the immersion of the mushroom in water to create a spore-mass slurry. Submerged them in a 5-gallon bucket of water.
Spawn run spans the period of time when the mycelium is colonizing the substrate. The amount of spawn inoculated into the substrate can greatly affect the duration of colonization, and therefore, the time to fruiting.
In this phase, it is important to work in optimal hygiene and sterilization conditions.
Materials: Pressure cooker, nutrient agar, electric stive, petri dishes, camping gas + lighter, parafil tape, scalpel, gloves, lab coat, alcohol.
Instructions:
Sterilize the textiles, petri dishes and growing medium in the pressure cooker.
Sterilize working area with ethanol and the camping gas.
Tag your petri dishes and pour growing medium.
Inoculate the petri dishes with the different ingredients.
Pine leaves and pine bark previously pasteurized in hot water for one hour.
Safety:
Wearing gloves and a lab coat si safer
Clean your hands after with ethanol and soap. No food or drinks around.
Pressure cooker
Sterilizing petris
Inoculating agar in the petri dish
Deliciosus
Deliciosus
Agar + Lactarius Deliciosus Agar + Mycelium + Lactarius Deliciosus Pine bark + pine leaf + Lactarious Deliciosus Pine bark + Lactarius Deliciosus Pine leaf + Mycelium + Lactarius Pine leaf + LactariusIn this table we can observe different substrates inoculated in petris taking the funghi, Lactarius Deliciosus, as the main ingredient.
Evolution: Day 5
Evolution: Day 15
I have not developed any more explorations beyond the inoculation phase. The images shown are the result obtained.
The optimal conditions for the inoculation to be carried out successfully would be the following:
Moisture: Substrate moisture should be between 60 and 75%. Moisture contents below 40% promote slow and wispy mycelial growth. The water content of straw at inoculation is nearly 75%, precipitously dropping after the first flush to the 60% range, and continuing to steadily decline through the remainder of the cropping cycle. Retard the loss of substrate moisture by maintining high humidity during spawn run.
Air Exchange: Mushroom mycelium is remarkable in its tolerance for carbon dioxide. Some Oyster mushrooms´growth rates peak at 20% carbon dioxide, or 200,000 ppm. The best levels vary with the strain, and whether one is working with pasteurized or sterilized substrates. To reduce carbon dioxide, fresh outside air is introduced. Consequently, several other phenomena occur: Evaporation is increased; humidity drops; temperature changes; and the number of contaminant particles entering the growing room rises as air exhanges are increased.
Temperature: Incubation temperature runs higher than the temperature for primordia formation. Internal temperatures should not exceed 95ºF (35ºC).
Lighting: Ligth is especially harmful when intensities exceed 10,000 lux. The mycelial mat only becomes photosensitive after it has coincident with full colonization, and after carbon dioxide evolution has steeply declined.
Tinctures use alcohol as a solvent to extract acidic and basic compounds from the funghi
A proportion will be established to indicate the concentration of the liquid
23 % Water
32 % Glycerine
45 % Alcohol
65gr dehydrated
Pleurotus funghi
Grind and Prep - Grind up whole mushrooms in blender/vitamix. .2500 ml distilled water was applied to accomplish this.
Water Decoction - Transfer blended mushroom / distilled water mixture into double boiler. 4 – 6 hours. Add Glycerine - Approx 4-6 hours into decoction, Strain off water / glycerine menstruum with cheesecloth.
ETOH Hot Infusion. Shake jars vigorously to make sure mark and ETOH is mixed thoroughly. Apply heat for minimum of 2 hours
Strain off ETOH menstruum. Set aside, ideally place into freezer or refrigerator.
Combine menstruums of water/glycerine and ETOH menstruum into one large pot.
After 12 hours of cooking, we get the tincture. It is a concentrated liquid extract that uses alcohol specifically as one of the solvents to dissolve the components desired properties found in the raw material. Tinctures are made from one mushroom or several. Depending on the properties we want to extract. In this case, this tincture is the result of Pleurotus and Shiitake funghi.
Benefits of extracts:
Greater bioavailability
Faster absorption rate stable quality easy to mix
Fastest way to get the benefits with full bioavailability
Pleurotus Ostreatus Post Tincture Lentinula Edodes Post tincture
25gr Alginate
50gr Glycerin
600 ml Pleurotus Ostreatus Tincture
Weigh the ingredients in the amounts you want. Put the alginate and glycerin in a blender and add the mushroom stain.
Mix until you get a thick and homogeneous paste. Add the rest of the stain and beat again until the lumps are removed.
Leave to dry in the oven until the material takes the right consistency.
Weigh the ingredients in the amounts you want. Put the CMC and add the mushroom stain in a blender.
Mix until you get a thick and homogeneous paste. Add the rest of the stain and beat again until the lumps are removed.
* Leave to dry in the oven until the material takes the right consistency.
5gr Agar
15gr Glycerin
250ml Lentinula Edodes tincture
Heat up the water
Stir in Glycerol
Recipe
Pour in agar slowly when the water as heated up simmer on 80c for 20-30min
when the consistency has become more dense take it of the stove
Pour on sheets while hot
Let it dry
10ml Soap
15 gr Glycerin
48gr Gelatine
240ml Lentinula Edodes
Tincture
Heat up the water
Stir in Glycerol
Pour in the gelatine slowly while slowly stirring
When the powder was dissolved leave to simmer for 10-30min do not let it reach hotter than 85ºC.
Mix in the soap
Pour on the sheets
Let it dry
Ingredients
Alginate
β-D-mannuronic acids (M)
α-L-guluronic acid (G)
Pleurotus
Ostreatus
Coprinus Comatus dye
Glycerin Alcohol
25gr Alginate
50ml Glycerin
600ml Pleurotus
Ostreatus Tincture
Coprinus Comatus Dye (1 Funghi)
Weigh the ingredients in the amounts you want. Put the alginate and glycerin in a blender and add the mushroom stain.
Mix until you get a thick and homogeneous paste. Add the rest of the stain and beat again until the lumps are removed.
Mix the dye of the Corpinus comatus and beat until it is homogeneous.
Leave to dry in the oven until the material takes the right consistency.
Once the biomaterials have been generated, I have developed different designs and see how they adapt to different parts of the body. Not all materials have behaved in the same way, so I will explain the most relevant ones below.
Designs made to make different molds in which to apply the biomaterial or designs in which to apply the laser cut directly
We obtain different results from each technique
The table shows all the parameters in which the biomaterial can be laser cut. Ranked from highest to lowest speed.
Below is a table of parameters in which the biomaterial is cut in the most optimal way.
It has been a first exploration in which I have been able to rule out some paths and strengthen others. A very enriching process in which exploration, continuous research, self-improvement and the desire to advance have been essential.
It is a speculative study in constant evolution in which a part of what has been explored is shown. In this sample I have been able to develop different biomaterials with their characteristics and properties through the extracts of medicinal funghi.
The idea is to include other types of funghi in the exploration and see how they would work with a process similar to the one I have been able to develop up to now. See the differences between one and the other and adapt the recipes and conditions of the biomaterial to carry out the final desire of generating a transdermal biomaterial.
These are the next steps that I consider for the near future. Testing of biomaterials:
Does the biomaterial have the properties of funghi in the right proportion?
In case of having them, what would be the permanence in which the properties are maintained in the material?
What characteristics would the biomaterial have to have in order for it to act as a transdermal tissue?
Application research
I identify myself as a person who is restless and curious about the world around. Since I was little I have felt linked to nature and the environment and everything that happened in it, being that social and environmental sensitivity my source of inspiration. When I finished my nursing studies I started with various training in the field of design. During my career I have been constantly learning and searching for new realities. After this project in which I have been able to combine the healthcare world with the world of design, I have felt the satisfaction of discovering the maker world from a vision very similar to my values.
One of my greatest interests is to collaborate and promote the development of new perspectives to improve the health of both people and the ecosystem through biodesign and biomanufacturing.
This is the beginning of a new way of being in the world.
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