Reishi: The Mushroom of Immortality and Modern Wellness
After doing the blog on our eight effective mushroom blend about a year ago I have done my best to buy the individual mushrooms to experience eating them singly. I was mostly successful, but I could not get a hold of three of them. One of the three, you guessed it, was Reishi.
With stories about bringing people back from the dead and being called the ten thousand year mushroom or mushroom of longevity, and even the mushroom of immortality, I really wanted to experience eating it.
What I recently found out is that because of its tough woody texture it is traditionally used in extract, tea or broth form and it has a bitter taste. So I guess the supermarket or a farmer’s market which is food-oriented might not be thinking with Reishi because it is not like you can sauté it and/or add it to a salad like you can most other mushrooms.
Still, this mushroom is so pretty with its shiny red skin that I would just love to experience it whole. Maybe you can sauté it after all or something. It is a shelf mushroom that grows on tree trunks of hardwood and conifers. Found originally on the Eastern Hemlocks of Europe and parts of China.
Ganoderma lucidum, its Latin name, is a straight description of its appearance. Ganoderma means shining skin and lucidum means bright or lighted. It looks like it was painted and varnished. Red is the most common color, but it can be found in purple, yellow, blue, white and black with different Latin names or sometimes a variation of the same species. All usually have a white outer rim until they are fully grown.
According to experts there are no poisonous look-alikes, so foraging for it is relatively safe. And since there are few reported side effects, health practitioners recommend liberal use freely. The only difficulty in foraging besides it being rare is that there are over 2,000 different species of Reishi mushrooms, so getting a genuine functional mushroom would be the only uncertainty. Oh, and you have to check the mushroom for mold. You could get bad effects from mold if you ate it with mold on it. A functional mushroom is one that gives more benefits than straight nutrition. So, I’m thinking that the worst that could happen if you are careful about any mold is you get a meal out of it.
Out of 2,000 species, ancient Chinese writings only talk about the 6 colors of Zhi. Zhi has the meaning of mushroom in Chinese, but in Daoism it refers to special substances, plant, mineral or animal, that are said to promote longevity. The red, as mentioned, is the most common and is known as Lingzhi in China. Lingzhi translates to herb of spiritual potency. It is unique in that the Chinese thought it affected the spirit life in the person beyond the body.
The word Reishi is the same word anglicized. That makes sense when I think of how my Chinese friend in college used to say frashlight instead of flashlight. It seems they pronounce the L with an R sound. So Lingzhi became Reishi. It is called Mannetake in Japan which means ten thousand year mushroom, referring to longevity.
All of the colors have slightly different properties. In the ancient texts each color was said to grow near specific mountains, but presently, efforts to verify this did not concur. All seemed to be growing all over with no such pattern. But in 2,000 years a lot could have changed. After all, there were people involved at the very least.
The black one is the next popular one. It is used most for respiratory health. Its Latin name is Ganoderma sinense. This species is also the “purple” Reishi because it can be purple in its early growth. The other colors have more or less the same uses as the red, which is an overall health adaptogen which is especially known for its effects on the heart, immune system and carbohydrate and fat metabolism.
It is unfortunate that Reishi is so rare in the wild. Because of this it was reserved for royalty. It has only been since 1970 that it has been broadly available due to efforts to cultivate it commercially.
There are so many varied active ingredients that to get most of them a double extract has to be done. One with hot water and then one with alcohol. This mushroom contains most of the substances I have mentioned in all the other herbs I have covered combined.
There are over 150 triterpenes and over 200 polysaccharides. But one group of compounds are found only in the ganoderma family of mushrooms. Hence, they are called ganoderic acids.
Reishi contains phosphorus, silica, sulfur, potassium, calcium, germanium and in lower amounts iron, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium.
Germanium was found to be the 5th highest concentration of minerals and potassium, calcium and magnesium the highest.
It seems I am not the only one who likes the shiny skin of the Reishi. It was common in the emperor's dwellings to make art and table centerpieces from it.
Its unique shape was often carved on the doors and archways of the emperor’s residences as a symbol of good health and a long life.
I am very happy that Herbal Roots is bringing Red Reishi to you. It is an adaptogen which I love and it sounds like it might make people so healthy that it even lifts their spirits. I can’t wait to try it. I hope you will join me in trying it too!
