Health Information Blog

Medicinal mushrooms have been immensely popular in Asia for millennia. Today, Americans are waking up to these powerful nutraceuticals. In the wake of this new awareness follow issues of product quality claims made by competing brands.

All medicinal mushroom species are plagued by this. Most fiercely debated is red reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), the most popular of all medicinal mushrooms. So this article will primarily focus on that species, but it’s generally applicable to all species of medicinal mushrooms.

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.

But even among the truly effective therapeutic brands, which are plentiful, there are important differences. Each seems to claim superiority over other brands, not surprisingly, because why else would anyone buy them? This article aims to clarify the confusion of conflicting and sometimes 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 Extraction (triterpenoids, etc.)

3. Fermenting (arabinoxylanes, etc.)

Polysaccharides have been shown to possess powerful anti-tumor qualities through enhancing the immune system and by inhibiting blood profusion through tumors. They are also strong antioxidants. [1]

Triterpenoids include a large number of related medicinal compounds whose proven effects include stabilization of blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood clotting. But most importantly, the triterpenoids are the anti-inflammatory compounds of reishi. [1] Inflammation is a serious component in asthma, allergies, arthritis and many more conditions.

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.

Naturally, the reason they say so is because they want to sell their own brand. However, those statements are scientifically untrue. Hot water and alcohol extractions both contain critical compounds.

To determine if a brand of reishi (or Ganoderma) contains all the important medicinal compounds from the mushroom, find out if it utilizes both alcohol and hot water extraction. An additional plus would be if it also includes fermented reishi.

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.

Surprisingly, though, alcohol tinctures may include both hot water extract and alcohol extract. You will know if the alcohol tincture contains polysaccharides because when the alcohol and hot water extracts are blended, the polysaccharides fall out of solution and the tincture becomes cloudy. (Just shake it before you take it.) A cloudy medicinal mushroom tincture is an indication of high polysaccharide content. Capsules and tablets may be either hot water extract or alcohol extract or both.

[1] Boh B, Berovic M, Zhang J, Zhi-Bin L. “Ganoderma lucidum and its pharmaceutically active compounds.” Biotechnol Annu Rev. 2007;13:265-301.

[2] Tang YJ, Zhang W, Zhong JJ, 2009. “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.” Bioresource Technol. Mar;100(5):1852-9.

Dr. Markho Rafael has worked with natural health since the early 90’s, currently specializing in medicinal mushrooms. He partners with Cordyceps Reishi Extracts, LLC on red reishi extract and cordyceps extract plus the newly popular mesima and more.