Mycelium live and multiply by digesting, in our case, organic grain. To live, mycelium secrete enzymes to break down their food (the grain), and then absorb it through their cell walls. This process transforms the grain into a new, fermented substance, called myceliated grain. The mycelium and myceliated grain become inseparable, and beneficial, in their own unique way, which is why digested grain is included in the powder ingredients of powders that include mycelium.
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The efficacy of a product is about much more than the fruiting body or the mycelium. They both work. Quality is just as important, and a quality product depends upon certain environmental and procedural conditions. For example, was the mycelium allowed to fully colonize? The longer you let the mycelium colonize, the more grain is digested, creating a more robust product. How fresh is your product? Just like all fresh whole food, the closer to harvest, the more viable the nutritional and medicinal value. How long did it take after the mushrooms were harvested to get them dried, shipped to the processing company, the processing company turning them into powdered extracts, then shipped overseas to the next formulation manufacturer to be made into the final product that you see? Who knows. Remember, anything in its powdered form will degrade most rapidly. How clean was the air and water used to grow the mushrooms? We are what we eat, and mushrooms are no different. Where are the mushrooms grown and processed? Most companies buy their “mushrooms” from overseas as powdered extracts and many have their products contract manufactured and it’s nearly impossible to tell by looking at the label, which leaves many unanswered questions about quality. Just having a testing label doesn’t guarantee the quality. This is why it’s so important to know your farmer.
Some companies, like us, powder the whole mushroom while others create a powdered extract or “resin”. There are pros and cons to both. Like all foods, the further you process away from the original food, the more you lose its nutritional benefits. Mushroom extract powders are processed by making a hot water slurry or an alcohol first, and then hot water slurry, filtering off the mushrooms and then putting the liquid into a spray dryer, evaporating the water off, which leaves a powder substance, that is then dried. This is how overseas manufacturers create “mushroom powders”. Domestically, small growers use off-the-shelf small equipment like Extract Craft to evaporate off the alcohol. This is an extract powder (water only) or double extract powder (water and alcohol). While this preparation can be made quite concentrated and readily dissolves in beverages and other formulations, you lose most of the incredibly important nutritive components of the mushroom like the insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber is incredibly important nutritionally to keep our digestive system functioning well and to feed our microbiota in the digestive system. Our microbiota create most of our serotonin and even some really important vitamins that our body can’t produce along with a whole bunch of other important functions! Also, none of the current clinical research is done on these highly concentrated products. Does more concentrated equal more biological effect? Maybe, maybe not; there is no supporting research, but typically there is a peak where more just can’t be utilized by our body. Processing and shipping of powdered extracts or concentrated resins, like this, allows for even more degradation of the medicinal value, and is also very energy and resource intensive.
We choose to honor what nature has shared with us and give a huge nod to the newest research on gut health by not super-processing and ultra-concentrating the mushroom out of our mushrooms. We activate the whole mushroom fruiting bodies along with fully colonized mycelium on digested grain with a short duration pressure steam to most effectively break down the polysaccharides into biologically active beta glucans while also preserving the other constituents as much as possible. We steam activate within 24-48 hours of fresh mushroom harvest, followed by dehydration. And, we only powder when we need product based on demand.
Our process has been reviewed and approved by a Food Safety Authority. We monitor our dehydrator temperatures and test for Water Activity per USDA food safety, and test regularly to ensure our process meets food safety standards as well as supplement GMPs. That is the benefit of growing and processing our own; we are in control of all the steps. We work in small batches, in our own FDA registered commercial kitchen, right on the farm. We continually educate ourselves and draw upon decades of experience in R & D and manufacturing pharmaceuticals, cultivating mushrooms, and clinical herbal medicine, in developing our processes while minimizing our impact on the ecosystem and formulating for the optimal health benefits. You get ALL the benefits from the mushrooms and you can’t get fresher than that! We believe THAT is QUALITY.
You should be able to ask your medicine maker about their processes, how fresh their mushrooms are and where their mushrooms are sourced. Most companies don’t make their own products. Some will cultivate and use a third party manufacturer and some companies don’t cultivate OR manufacture! They just create the formulation and packaging, more like a branding company. One way to tell if they make their own product is to check the label. FDA supplement regulations require it must be stated on the packaging “manufactured for” and also require 100% testing if it is an “ingredient” being used. This is why many companies can put their test results on their websites as the powders being shipped MUST have testing. It’s often nearly impossible from a website to know if the company cultivates their own mushrooms or makes their own products, but you should be able to ask the company, and a good quality company will be happy to give you the details..
Benson, Kathleen F., Paul Stamets, Renee Davis, Regan Nally, Alex Taylor, Sonya Slater, and Gitte S. Jensen. “The Mycelium of the Trametes Versicolor (Turkey Tail) Mushroom and Its Fermented Substrate Each Show Potent and Complementary Immune Activating Properties in Vitro.” BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 19, no. 1 (December ): 342. https://doi.org/10./s-019--7.
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Stamets, Paul. “Trametes Versicolor (Turkey Tail Mushrooms) and the Treatment of Breast Cancer.” Global Advances in Health and Medicine 1, no. 5 (November ): 20. https://doi.org/10./gahmj..1.5.007.
Vigna, Luisella, Federica Morelli, Gianna M. Agnelli, Filomena Napolitano, Daniela Ratto, Alessandra Occhinegro, Carmine Di Iorio, et al. “Hericium Erinaceus Improves Mood and Sleep Disorders in Patients Affected by Overweight or Obesity: Could Circulating Pro-BDNF and BDNF Be Potential Biomarkers?” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM (April 18, ): . https://doi.org/10.//.
Benson, Kathleen F., Paul Stamets, Renee Davis, Regan Nally, Alex Taylor, Sonya Slater, and Gitte S. Jensen. “The Mycelium of the Trametes Versicolor (Turkey Tail) Mushroom and Its Fermented Substrate Each Show Potent and Complementary Immune Activating Properties in Vitro.” BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 19, no. 1 (December 2, ): 342. https://doi.org/10./s-019--7.
Davis, Renee, Alex Taylor, Regan Nally, Kathleen F Benson, Paul Stamets, and Gitte S Jensen. “Differential Immune Activating, Anti-Inflammatory, and Regenerative Properties of the Aqueous, Ethanol, and Solid Fractions of a Medicinal Mushroom Blend.” Journal of Inflammation Research Volume 13 (February ): 117–31. https://doi.org/10./JIR.S.
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After having had countless customers reach out to us trying to understand what makes a mushroom supplement good quality and often comparing us to companies where the information on the site as well as the mushroom extracts are lacking the most important and fundamental components to create a good quality product, we wanted to create an overview so you can easily identify whether you are purchasing a quality or rubbish mushroom product.
There are in fact various factors that affect the quality of a medicinal mushroom extract. This includes the extraction process, testing, cultivation, strains and more.
We have broken down 7 key factors to consider when choosing your mushroom extracts.
First and foremost, you want to ensure that you are able to review lab reports which show the active ingredient testing of the mushrooms. The active ingredients are where the mushrooms medicinal properties lie.
Unfortunately, many mushroom suppliers do not show their lab reports at all, or you have to request them. We searched through countless of competitors trying to review their lab reports and none had theirs listed on their website.
We list all of the lab reports for the individual mushrooms directly on the product pages - fully transparent – breaking down every part of the test.
Unfortunately, many also only test for the polysaccharide content. This doesn’t actually tell you anything about the mushroom’s quality. You will see a high degree of polysaccharide such as >50% and assume that this must be a good mushroom extract. Beware of this as the actual and true quality lies in the active ingredient testing and not the polysaccharide testing.
*See the next section regarding polysaccharide content for more information on this.
Let’s clear up the confusion behind a mushroom’s active ingredients.
Some polysaccharides like starch or gluten help store the energy we gain from consuming food and are commonly found in foods like oats, potatoes, and legumes. Now did you know that Beta-glucans are not the only type of polysaccharide found in mushrooms. Alpha-glucans are another type of polysaccharide found in mushrooms that have no medicinal properties. Mushrooms that have a high listed polysaccharide count (over 50%) and do not test for the beta d glucan and alpha glucan content commonly contain high levels of alpha-glucans. These products are often drawing their nutrients from the starchy substrate they are grown on and contain residual starch that isn't filtered out during processing.
We specifically break down our test in the form of polysaccharides and then again between beta d glucans and alpha glucans which can also be seen on our lab reports on the individual product pages.
What are Beta D Glucans?
Functional Mushrooms contain many different forms of polysaccharides but the most important one is beta-D-glucans, found in the cell walls of mushrooms.
Beta-glucans come in various forms. The main one has what is known as 1-3,1-6 branching, or (1-3) (1-6) beta-D-glucans. The term beta-glucan refers to the beta-linked glucose molecules that form the fungal polysaccharide.
Beta-D-glucans are biological response modifiers. They can up-regulate and down-regulate the response of biological systems and hence help to regulate our immune health. They can stimulate an increased immune response that in turn enables a more effective reaction for fighting off infections. In contrast, they can also turn down an overactive immune response via anti-inflammatory cytokine modulation.
Beta D Glucans can stimulate the immune response to defend against bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic infections.
An extract ratio such as the above for example simply means that 5kg of raw material (raw mushroom) was used to create 1kg of mushroom extract.
Something to look out for, is that you will at times find mushroom supplements that are labelled as having extraction ratios of 50:1 or even 100:1. Now this sounds like the mushroom supplement is highly concentrated, but this is in fact not the case at all.
The quantity of raw mushroom material to create an extract depends on the density and other physical characteristics of the mushroom rather than the quality and potency of the extraction.
A 100:1 extract would more likely mean there were a lot of mushrooms wasted, hence it was not sustainably made and in fact more realistically, it means nothing other than it looks great on the package which can of course be quite misleading!
Which Extraction ratio do we use?
We use an extraction ratio of 15:1. We have thus used 15kg of mushrooms to create 1kg of mushroom extract.
For more information, please visit Wholesale Mushroom Powder.
The mushroom extracts should be Organic and tested for heavy metals and pesticides.
Mushrooms are a product of their environment and absorb from their surrounding environment, which if your extracts aren't organic, could result in the mushrooms containing a high level of unwanted toxins and contaminants.
Are Antioxi functional mushrooms Organic?
We source our medicinal mushrooms from farms that are certified organic within the EU and USDA Organic Certification Programs.
Our mushrooms are all organic certified. We also perform multiple lab tests on all mushrooms for purity, heavy metals, and pesticides.
Our Testing Process
1. Double Testing of Raw Materials
The raw mushrooms undergo 2 rounds of pesticide testing.
2. Quality Testing of the Extract
3. Safety Testing
To ensure our products are safe to consume and ensure they meet the international standards they are tested for both Heavy Metals and Ethylene oxide.
We perform batch tests as well as third party tests.
The mycelium is a mass of tangled threads that form the vegetative part of a fungus. It’s similar to a plant’s roots in how it grows beneath the mushroom's surface. The mycelium can grow and develop for years, competing in a hostile environment of bacteria, viruses, and other fungi ready to consume it. It creates and produces compounds that directly harm its predators to protect itself.
The fruiting body is the most recognizable part of the mushroom. It grows above the surface and is what we recognise a mushroom to be.
So, which is actually better?
You will see many mushroom supplements companies advertising that they only sell the fruiting body because the mycelium does not provide medicinal properties and vice versa - this is simply not true, and the clinical trials and research show this.
In essence, both mycelia and the fruiting body provide you with health benefits. Hence, one is not actually better than the other. It all comes down to the mushroom and the benefit being sought. Some mushrooms (depending on the active ingredient) benefit from a fruiting body extract and some from the mycelium.
In fact, in some instances, it is important to use a formula that utilizes both the mycelium and the mushroom’s fruiting body for a more complete supplement. This is for example the case with Lion’s mane. This is as hericenones are found in the fruiting body, whereas Erinacines is found in the mushroom's mycelium – hence both the mycelium and fruiting body are needed to fully benefit from both compounds.
You can find out more about which mushrooms benefit from the fruiting body, Mycelium or a dual extract here.
Are Antioxi medicinal mushrooms the fruiting body, mycelium or both?
We follow the clinical literature when it comes to choosing between the 3 options. That having been said, we use the fruiting body of all our mushrooms, apart from lion's mane where we use both the mycelium and fruiting body for a full spectrum product.
Extraction affects both the quality AND effectiveness of your functional mushroom. The optimal extraction method once again depends on the mushroom itself. Different methods are used to promote and dissolve the unique active ingredients in the mushroom extracts and hence create a high spectrum medicinal mushroom extract.
Here are 2 extraction methods explained:
The Extraction Process
The process is just as important as the extraction method used. The process refers to the temperature used during the extraction process, how many rounds of extraction took place and how impurities were removed from the final extract.
What does Antioxi’s Extraction process look like?
Our mushroom extraction process is designed to optimize the levels of active compounds.
1. The mushrooms are harvested at their peak potency.
Different mushrooms reach maturity at different stages. To harvest the best quality mushrooms, it is important to do this at the most optimum time.
See an overview of our mushrooms and their Harvesting Periods:
2. The whole dried mushrooms are ground, and the mushroom powder is extracted in hot water, ethanol or in a dual extraction process. This process takes several hours.
3. 2 rounds of 90-minute extractions take place at 80 degrees heat (from our research many companies only do 1)
4. 1 stage of purification to increase solubility and remove impurities – this last step is unfortunately often skipped by other mushroom supplement companies.
A good mushroom supplement company will be transparent about their sourcing and proud of the extensive research and testing that went into finding quality farms! If the origin is not listed on the website and/or they are not willing to share their origin with you, this is a big red flag!
Where are Antioxi’s Medicinal mushrooms sourced from?
All of our origins can be found directly on the product pages.
We actually go the extra mile of sourcing specific mushrooms from specific sources around the world based on their growing conditions, experience, altitude and access to natural recourses. There are farms in the world that have generational experience of farming specific mushrooms and have become absolute experts at farming them. We thus have chosen to work with a variety of farms who specialise in farming specific mushrooms.
Our mushrooms Origin
Our functional mushrooms, apart from Chaga which is sourced from Siberia, are sourced from various regions in China. China has the longest history in mushroom cultivation, dating back thousands of years, and their knowledge and experience is superior to anywhere else. China is estimated to provide over 70% of the world’s mushrooms. We work with a variety of farms in different regions who specialise in growing different types of medicinal mushrooms.
Our farmers facilities are regularly tested, and all our mushroom products are thoroughly tested with lab reports available to view on the product pages.
An overview of our Mushrooms and their exact Origin
As you can see, there are various aspects to consider when choosing your medicinal mushroom supplement. At the end of the day making an informed decision with all information at hand is important, especially as so many people use functional mushrooms to treat serious health conditions, not just for themselves but for their pets too!
We hope that this guide will be helpful in you choosing a mushroom supplement company you can trust but if you did have any more questions, we do have a dedicated online specialist team in our chat function that is always happy to help! ????
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