Functional or “medicinal” mushrooms have been used for thousands of years in East Asian medicine for their health boosting properties. The use of functional mushrooms has been a remarkably resilient tradition, for long based on human experience, passed on from generation to generation—only more recently have studies begun to reveal the specific compounds in these mushrooms that can explain their health benefits.

Landish’s certified organic mushrooms are put through a natural and traditional water boiling process called decoction to maximize the bioavailability of these compounds. Landish only uses the fruiting body of the mushroom and never any mycelium or other fillers.

Aside from the general characteristics of functional mushrooms, specific mushrooms are known for different benefits.

Organic Reishi Mushroom

Reishi mushroom, or Ganoderma Lucidum, is nicknamed “the mushroom of immortality” for it’s primarily immune boosting and anti-cancer properties. There are two main bioactive constituents in reishi: antioxidants, most notably triterpenes or triterpenoids, said to be responsible for a protective and anti-cancer effect on cells; and prebiotic polysaccharides, mainly fungal beta glucans, which have been found to support immune activity by activating leukocytes (white blood cells)

Organic Chaga Mushroom

Chaga mushroom, which grows mainly on birch trees in colder climates, may have a somewhat lackluster, charcoal-like appearance, but its benefits are anything but! Chaga draws the triterpenoid betulin from the birch tree and turns it into inotodiol, betulinic acid, and trametenolic acid. Of these compounds, inotodiol has shown the strongest anti-cancer activity.

Organic Cordyceps Militaris Mushroom

Cordyceps mushrooms are thought to increase the production of a molecule known as ATP (adenosine triphosphate) in the body, which plays a key role in delivering energy to the muscles.

Organic Lion’s Mane Mushroom

The beautiful lion’s mane mushroom contains erinacines and hericenones, compounds which stimulate the synthesis of nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein responsible for the growth and survival of neurons (brain cells). This has been linked to better cognitive performance in humans and has been shown to help protect against Alzheimer’s disease in mice.

Organic Turkey Tail Mushroom

When first talking to friends about integrating “turkey tail” into some of our products, we remember getting an emphatic “wait, what!?”. They thought we had really lost our minds. But we promptly repeated “turkey tail...mushroom” and pulled up pictures to show the resemblance—what a beautiful mushroom! Not just beautiful though… Turkey tail mushrooms contain various compounds including polysaccharopeptides and polysaccharides (including coriolus versicolor glucan (CVG)), which help to explain the immunomodulating effect of this mushroom.

It seems that people tuned in to the countless health benefits of certain mushrooms through thousands of years of trial.

Only more recently are we beginning to understand the science backing and legitimizing their traditional use.

There's little in nature that is as fascinating and awe-inspiring as the world of fungi, wouldn’t you say?