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.

This information applies to all species of medicinal mushrooms. For practical purposes, this article will focus on the most popular medicinal mushroom species, red reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), over which the most intense battle of conflicting claims is being fought.

The first and perhaps obvious caution is to stay away from cheap mass-produced brands of medicinal mushrooms that may only contain dried and pulverized mushrooms, in which case the medicinal compounds are still inaccessible behind the mushrooms’ cell walls.

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. Hot Water Extraction (polysaccharides, etc.)

2. Alcohol Extraction (triterpenoids, sterols)

3. Fermenting (arabinoxylanes, etc.)

The most important hot water extracted compounds are the polysaccharides. Studies have shown them to possess strong anti-tumor properties, help boost immune system and be powerful 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]

Less researched are the “secondary metabolites” that come from fermenting reishi. “Secondary” because they result when the original medicinal compounds get broken down by bacteria. These new compounds have been shown to possess therapeutic properties that are unique, including immune enhancement, anti-tumor and blood-sugar regulation. [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. “Ganoderma lucidum and its pharmaceutically active compounds.” Biotechnol Annu Rev. 2007;13:265-301.

[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 with natural health since the’90’s, currently focusing on medicinal mushrooms. He partners with Cordyceps Reishi Extracts, LLC on premium reishi extract and cordyceps extract plus the increasingly popular mesima mushroom and many more.

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