Info on the nootropic value of mushroom extracts

The beneficial effects of a lot of these mushrooms are only recently coming to light in the west. Most of them have been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine. However, the actual scientific analysis of their active ingredients, and how those compounds affect the body, has only been happening recently. The best way to find data on them is to open Google Scholar, and use their botanical names, like Tremella fuciformis (White Jelly, Snow Fungus). I wrote some pretty good descriptions that should get you at least a basic idea of them.

Characterisation of acidic heteroglycans from Tremella fuciformis Berk with cytokine stimulating activity

Polysaccharides in fungi. XXXIII. Hypoglycemic activity of an acidic polysaccharide \(AC\) from Tremella fuciformis

The hypocholesterolemic effect of two edible mushrooms: Auricularia auricula \(tree-ear\) and Tremella fuciformis \(white jelly-leaf\) in hypercholesterolemic rats

You can see a lot of the effects are hepato/neuroprotective, anti-cancer,anti-inflammatory, and immune-boosting.

Medicinal Mushroom Science: History, Current Status, Future Trends, and Unsolved Problems

The data on mushroom polysaccharides are summarized for approximately 700 species of higher Hetero- and Homobasidiomycetes. The chemical structure of polysaccharides and its connection to antitumor activity, including possible ways of chemical modi fication, experimental testing, and clinical use of antitumor or immunostimulating polysaccharides, as well as possible mechanisms of their biological action, are discussed. Particularly, and most importantly for modern medicine, are polysaccharides with antitumor and immunostimulating properties. Several of the mushroom polysaccharide compounds have proceeded through Phase I, II, and III clinical trials and are used extensively and successfully in Asia to treat various cancers and other diseases. A total of 126 medicinal functions are thought to be produced by medicinal mushrooms and fungi, including antitumor, immunomodulating, antioxidant, radical scavenging, cardiovascular, antihypercholesterolemia, antiviral, antibacterial, antiparasitic, antifungal, detoxification, hepatoprotective, and antidiabetic effects.

Red Reishi has some good ones:

The anti-tumor effect of Ganoderma Lucidum is mediated by cytokines released from activated macrophages and T lymphocytes

Anti-HIV-1 and anti-HIV-1-protease substances from Ganoderma Lucidum

Structural features of immunologically active polysaccharides from Ganoderma lucidum

Cordyceps too:

Anti-inflammatory and related pharmacological activities of cultured mycelia and fruiting bodies of Cordyceps militaris

Structural characterization and antioxidant activity of a polysaccharide from the fruiting bodies of cultured Cordyceps militaris

Medicinal uses of the mushroom Cordyceps militaris: Current state and prospects

There are a ton more out there. You just need to use the specific botanical name instead of the common name. You can also search the active ingredients, like beta-glucans, cordycepin, triterpenoids, etc.

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Then there is the big issue that needs to come out into the open. I wrote a long post on the site about the main scam in the mushroom industry right now. I am going to be trying to bring that more to light over the coming months, as I think it is something people need to know. I have been scammed by some of the major mushroom brands myself, and never knew they were selling inferior products that do not even contain mushrooms. It's infuriating to think of all the people with compromised immune systems, or cancer, than have tried using product like Host Defense, thinking they were getting mushroom extracts. I think this is going to be a huge scandal soon, and people are going to be very upset.

The main issue is that most of the vendors for medicinal mushroom products in the US have moved to using something called mycelium on grain. Mycelium is to mushrooms what roots are to a tree. It is what will eventually grow into a fruiting body, or what we know as mushrooms. To save money, and make growing mushroom products cheap enough to do in the US, companies grow this mycelium on beds of grain, like rice. Then they grind up the mycelium with the rice bed, before it can grow into a fruiting body. They then create a powder out of this rice and mycelium, and call it a mushroom extract. Just like roots of a tree are not a tree, so too is mycelium not a mushroom. It's actually against FDA regulations to call a mycelium product a mushroom product. However, these big companies thwart those guidelines, and scam people into thinking they are getting an effective product. They then try to obfuscate this fact by standardizing to "polysaccharides" instead of "β-Glucans." Then they claim high polysaccharide content, and people think that means it has high active ingredients. However, polysaccharide tests come up positive for any starch. So remember all that ground up rice that the mycelium was growing on? What is it made of? Starch! So they grind up rice, run a test for starch, then claim victory when they find a ton of polysccharides. It's a huge scam! They are selling ground up rice with what is essentially the roots of a budding mushroom, and calling it a mushroom extract. They are putting out cheaply-made, mislabeled, and ultimately ineffective products, and that information needs to get out there!

So that is the gist of it. We partnered with Nammex, who are super passionate about mushrooms. They have been trying to get this information out there about all these fake mushroom products on the market. In fact, some of the larger brands in stores have already started trying to hit back at them, and claim all sorts of things about Nammex's extracts. However, they have done a barrage of testing, to ensure these are unequivocally the best products out there. They know their products speak for themselves, and they have the data to prove it. We are going to help them spread this message as far as we can, and blow the lid off these companies. I actually floated the idea to have some simple testing kits made in one of our calls a few months ago, and Nammex went out and made some kits for it. We are going to start distributing them to people, so they can test any mushroom extract they find in stores for starch. Samples from the major brands have been independently tested by some labs, and the results are pathetic. I am working to develop a testing site, were we can release 3rd party analysis of all these fake "mushroom extracts" on the market right now.