Medicinal mushrooms, hugely popular for thousands of years in the Orient, are coming in vogue today also in the West. On the coattails of their increasing popularity follow issues of quality and ethical representation between competing brands.
All species of medicinal mushrooms appear haunted by this issue. Particularly so, it seems, is red reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), the oldest medicinal mushroom in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Please note, however, that the information in this article applies generally to all medicinal mushroom species.
An obvious caution is to stay away from cheap, mass-produced reishi. It may be merely dried and pulverized. In order to be medicinal, the mushroom cell-wall has to be broken down. Mass-produced reishi may be mostly inert and ineffective.
There are many real therapeutic brands on the market, though. But even among them, there are significant differences. They all claim to be the best, naturally, because they all want to sell their particular brand. So let’s sift the data, get the facts straight, and clear up misleading information that is out there.
There are primarily three ways to extract the medicinal compounds from red reishi. Each method pulls out different compounds, all of which have been proven by scientific research to be therapeutically important.
1. Water Extraction, Hot (polysaccharides and more)
2. Alcohol/Ethanol Extraction (triterpenoids, etc.)
3. Fermenting (arabinoxylanes, etc.)
The water soluble compounds, primarily polysaccharides, are powerful anti-tumor agents, immune enhancers and strong antioxidants. [1]
The alcohol soluble compounds are mainly triterpenoids, a large group of related compounds. Scientific studies suggest they help stabilize cholesterol, blood pressure and clotting. Most importantly, they are the anti-inflammatory compounds so critical to many of reishi’s suggested uses, including arthritis, allergies and asthma. [1]
And then there are the new and unique medicinal compounds that get created when reishi is fermented. These “secondary metabolites” have their own therapeutic properties, different from the first two groups, including anti-tumor, immune support and blood-sugar balance. [2]
This article is intended to give general guidelines to help you choose an effective reishi product, not to recommend any particular brand. But there are at least two reishi companies on the market which both state only hot water extract is useful while alcohol extracts are of no value.
They do that, of course, because they wish to sell their products. However, there is no scientific validity to those claims. All three extraction methods listed above yield important medicinal compounds.
When looking for the best reishi extract, find one that uses at least the first two extraction methods in combination: Hot Water and Alcohol Extraction. Even better may be a brand that includes all three methods listed.
As a last point, when you look for the best reishi extract, one thing to look at is the form it comes in. For example, any reishi extract that fully dissolves in a water-based liquid such as coffee probably only contains hot water extracted reishi. So while reishi/ganoderma coffee certainly makes for a superbly delicious and healthy cup loaded with polysaccharides, it won’t include the important anti-inflammatory triterpenoids.
On the other hand, alcohol tinctures can actually contain both water soluble polysaccharides and alcohol soluble triterpenoids. The way you know is that the polysaccharides will fall out of solution because of the alcohol, and will make the tincture cloudy. That’s alright though; you just need to shake before you take. Capsules and tablets may be one or the other or both. The only way to know is ask the manufacturer or read their information.
[1] Boh B, Berovic M, Zhang J, Zhi-Bin L, 2007. “Ganoderma lucidum and its pharmaceutically active compounds.” Biotechnology Annu Rev-:265-301.
[2] Tang YJ, Zhang W, Zhong JJ. “Performance analyses of a pH-shift and DOT-shift integrated fed-batch fermentation process for the production of ganoderic acid and Ganoderma polysaccharides by medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidum.” Bioresour Technol. 2009 Mar;100(5):1852-9.
Dr. Rafael has worked in the health field since the’90’s, currently specializing in medicinal mushrooms. He partners with Davida Sara on premium reishi extract and cordyceps extract plus the increasingly popular mesima mushroom and more.
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