Medicinal mushrooms are fungi valued mainly for the compounds they contain rather than as everyday food. Many are woody or bitter, so they are taken as teas, tinctures, and extracts. Their best-studied compounds are beta-glucans, triterpenes, phenolic compounds, and sterols (Łysakowska et al., 2023).
The Medicinal Mushrooms in Our Blends
- Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum): a glossy shelf fungus, rich in triterpenes and polysaccharides.
- Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor): a thin, banded bracket fungus studied for its polysaccharides.
- Chaga (Inonotus obliquus): a dark, cracked growth on birch, rich in phenolic compounds.
- Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus): a white tooth fungus studied for compounds that stimulate nerve growth factor. Also a culinary mushroom.
- Black Hoof (Phellinus linteus): a hard, hoof-shaped polypore from East Asian traditional medicine.
- Lumpy Bracket (Trametes gibbosa): a pale shelf fungus and a relative of turkey tail.
Shiitake and maitake are culinary mushrooms that are also studied for their compounds, so they belong to both groups.
Getting the Compounds Out
A mushroom’s compounds sit inside cell walls made of chitin and glucans. Hot water draws out the polysaccharides, and alcohol draws out the triterpenes, which is why many medicinal mushroom products use dual extraction (Zheng et al., 2020). See Chitin, Beta-Glucans, Triterpenes, and Dual Extraction in this section.
What the Evidence Shows
Laboratory and animal studies report antioxidant, immune-modulating, and other effects for many medicinal mushrooms. Human evidence is thinner. Reviews of reishi, for example, find that clinical results are inconsistent, likely because studies use different preparations and different groups of people (Chan et al., 2021). Researchers in the field agree that larger, longer clinical studies are still needed to confirm effects, safety, and dosing (Łysakowska et al., 2023).
Most published studies use isolated compounds, standardized extracts, or cultivated strains. Wild mushrooms vary with soil, weather, and harvest, so findings from one preparation do not transfer exactly to another.
References
Chan, S. W., Tomlinson, B., Chan, P., & Lam, C. W. K. (2021). The beneficial effects of Ganoderma lucidum on cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk. Pharmaceutical Biology, 59(1), 1159–1169. https://doi.org/10.1080/13880209.2021.1969413
Łysakowska, P., Sobota, A., & Wirkijowska, A. (2023). Medicinal mushrooms: Their bioactive components, nutritional value and application in functional food production. A review. Molecules, 28(14), Article 5393. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28145393
Zheng, S., Zhang, W., & Liu, S. (2020). Optimization of ultrasonic-assisted extraction of polysaccharides and triterpenoids from the medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidum and evaluation of their in vitro antioxidant capacities. PLoS ONE, 15(12), Article e0244749. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244749