Discover How Mushrooms Can Impact Your Health!

Our fascination with mushroom folklore dates to the dawn of civilization. Their role within our ecosystem for energy, mineral, and nutrient redistribution is critical for all forms of life. This positions them as a great source of essential vitamins, minerals, and unique beneficial compounds. As for human consumption, they have been revered for millennia. Modern science has proven their medicinal properties through extensive global research. This has driven worldwide demand, ecological cultivation methods, and sophisticated extraction techniques.

Why Are Medicinal Mushrooms Good for You!

The applications of boundless fungal species are as varied as that “je ne sais quoi” in fine cuisine and inclusion in clinical trials for ground-breaking medical breakthroughs.

Medicinal mushrooms contain compounds called polysaccharides, including beta-glucans, and many species-specific therapeutic compounds. Their properties have demonstrated a wealth of health benefits including antioxidant action, immune support, stress reduction, energy, and cognitive enhancement, along with strengthening resilience and vigour during chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

But Chitin Stands in the Way

Although not visibly obvious, mushrooms have rigid microscopic cell walls composed of chitin, the same compound found in shellfish exoskeletons (e.g., lobster). Since chitin cannot be dissolved by the human digestive system, the valuable medicinal properties within cannot be absorbed by the intestines. The challenge exists how to extract these elusive polysaccharides and beta-glucans from within their rigid cell walls.

The Solution: Hot-Water Extraction!

Hot-water extracts have the highest therapeutic value for mushrooms. Science has shown that medicinal mushrooms’ therapeutic benefits come from microscopic compounds called polysaccharides, the most studied of which are beta-glucans. However, they are encased within the mushrooms’ rigid cell walls, known as chitin, which can’t be absorbed by our bodies.

Hot-water extraction is a time-consuming, gentle process during which the chitin is dissolved without harming the therapeutic compounds, producing highly concentrated and bioavailable extracts. Hot-water extracts are the only format of medicinal mushrooms allowing for validated measures of polysaccharides, and particularly beta-glucans. New Roots Herbal’s medicinal mushroom hot-water extracts are standardized to contain 40% polysaccharides, with quantified beta-glucans. Therapeutic potencies can then be quantified in our industry–leading, ISO 17025–accredited analytical laboratory for an accurate label claim. This ensures you get the correct species and therapeutic potency you demand.

WHERE TO BUY

Medicinal Mushrooms: Deep-Rooted Benefits

Studies have since validated many of their incredible health benefits, and their popularity has grown.

But did you know that the format of mushrooms (extract, powder, or tea) makes all the difference when it comes to their studied therapeutic benefits? When looking for therapeutic benefits from medicinal mushrooms, understanding their molecular composition (structure) is essential for you to choose the right product which suits your needs. Let’s explore some additional and popular forms of mushrooms.

Spores, Medicinal Mushrooms with Chemotherapy

Mushroom spores are very unique and precious. These “seeds” are essentially the life force of a mushroom. Spores do not require hot-water extraction: Gentle milling is enough to ensure intestinal absorption of medicinal compounds.

When buying mushroom spores, it is critical to ensure they are actual spores, and not unvalidated powders, and to properly identify the species of mushroom. Validation in an ISO 17025–accredited laboratory ensures you get what you pay for.

Reishi spores have been clinically proven to help manage symptoms of fatigue and weakness, and to improve energy during radiation and chemotherapy treatments.