Since 1994, Mushroom Science has provided the purest and most effective, highest quality medicinal mushroom supplements and organic mushrooms than any other medicinal mushroom company in North America.

While medicinal mushrooms have been used for thousands of years in Traditional East Asian Medicine, rigorous scientific testing on the use of these mushrooms has been conducted only in the past thirty years. However, those thirty years of research have produced a wealth of information. We find that on all of the important points, science supports the preparation and use of medicinal organic mushrooms as described in the texts on Traditional Chinese Medicine. This knowledge, a point of convergence between the clinical traditions of East and West, is the foundation of our approach to quality, and guides every step of our manufacturing and quality control process. It is our guarantee that you are purchasing a quality medicinal mushroom product specifically formulated to deliver the active constituents unique to each mushroom.

Our experience shows:

• We grow our own certified organic mushrooms, on wood, the way nature intended.
• Every extract is carefully prepared, capturing the complete essence of what made these medicinal mushrooms valuable in the ancient herbal traditions of Japan and China.
• Quality is guaranteed; each supplement is formulated to deliver consistent and effective levels of all the primary active compounds identified in the scientific research. Every supplement that carries our label has been analyzed to ensure this is the case.
• Potency is listed on the label of every mushroom supplement, allowing you to take full advantage of the dosing recommendations proven effective in the scientific research.

No other medicinal mushroom company can match our skill, sophistication or experience when it comes to providing guaranteed potency, research quality, certified organic mushrooms and mushroom supplements . . . the proof is on every label. Mushroom Science is the only mushroom company in North America that is willing to list the levels of all the scientifically validated active compounds on every supplement label.

With tens of thousands of peer reviewed studies published over the last forty years there is no longer any mystery regarding what the active compounds are in each of the different medicinal mushrooms. From Kestin (Coriolus) to Reishi to Maitake, the potency needed for good effect has been clearly established.

As Dr. Mark Stengler recognizes – in his revolutionary book, "The Health Benefits of Medicine Mushrooms" – potency information is essential, and this is what sets the Mushroom Science supplements apart from all other mushroom supplements on the market. It is only common sense; you need to know potency information in order to see how the supplement stacks up to the potency standards established in the research.

Consistent and guaranteed potency are the foundation of traditional herbalism and the modern clinical research, and are essential to delivering the health benefits you are looking for when using medicinal mushroom supplements.

Cordyceps
Cordyceps sinensis – Cordyceps Cs-4. Cordyceps is a diverse supplement. It is used to promote energy and endurance, as well as for issues relating to respiratory health, kidney health, immune health and occasional fatigue and modulation.
All of the modern clinical research on Cordyceps has been conducted with hot water extracts of the Cordyceps sinensis Cs-4 strain, the same strain used at Mushroom Science to produce high potency Cordyceps extract. Every batch of Mushroom Science Cordyceps is guaranteed to contain the same effective levels of polysaccharide and adenosine compounds as used in the human clinical research.

Coriolus
Coriolus “Super Strength”, Coriolus PSP, Krestin, Turkey Tail, Trametes versicolor, Coriolus versicolor.
Coriolus "Super-Strength" and PSP are used to maintain, protect or restore immune health.
Known as Krestin (or PSK in Japan) and as PSP (or Yun zhi in China), the hot water extract of this medicinal mushroom is the world's most thoroughly researched supplement for immune health. There have been more than 400 animal studies and over a dozen placebo-controlled double-blind human clinical studies published in peer reviewed medical journals.
Mushroom Science is the only company in North America providing research quality PSK ("Super-Strength") and PSP, and has been acting as a consultant for the recently funded $1,000,000.00 study on these extracts.


Maitake
Maitake Gold 404, Maitake, Maitake Mushrooms.
Maitake and the tea from Maitake mushrooms are used to maintain, protect or restore immune health. Maitake Gold 404 represents the only clinically validated liquid Maitake supplement on the market – it is currently being researched at the Sloan-Kettering Center in New York.
Maitake mushrooms are called the "dancing mushroom" in Japanese folklore and make a very tasty addition to the dinner table, being used in a variety of soups and sauces.


Reishi
Reishi – (Reishi Gano 161)
(Ganoderma lucidum) Tea made from Reishi mushrooms is the premiere tonic herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Reishi Gano 161 is a powerful preventative, liver tonic, and immune tonic. Reishi extracts can also prevent altitude sickness if continual daily use is started 10-14 days before experiencing the increased altitude.
In TCM an extract of the mushroom fruit body is used - never the mycelium. Modern clinical research has also confirmed that Reishi mushrooms, not the mycelium, must be used, as the mushroom contains essential beneficial compounds that the mycelium is missing.
The shiny red surface on the cap of the Reishi mushroom, a physical feature not present in the mycelium, contains the triterpenes that provide the significant health benefits for the liver Reishi is famous for. At 6% triterpenes the Mushroom Science Reishi Gano 161 extract is the most potent Reishi supplement on the North American market. Compare the label with any other brand. The Mushroom Science Reishi extract is currently being used and studied in human clinical trials at Bastyr University, one of the top Naturopathic Medical Colleges in North America.

. . . about our Professional Line of Medicinal Mushrooms.

. . . To place an order for our Medicinal Mushroom products.

Aids Data Base
AIDS information is a central resource for current information on federally and privately funded clinical trials for AIDS patients and others infected with HIV. As the main dissemination point for federally approved HIV treatment and prevention guidelines, AIDSinfo provides information about the current treatment regimens for HIV infection and AIDS-related illnesses, including the prevention of HIV transmission from occupational exposure and mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy.
http://aidsinfo.nih.gov

Alternative Medicine

Complementary and Alternative Medicine on MedLine - (National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine)
www.nlm.nih.gov/nccam/camonpubmed.html

Complementary and Alternative Medical (CAM) Resources on the World Wide Web (WWW)
This site was put together by the Rosenthal Center at Columbia University. A site that leans more towards the conventional perspective but is quite useful in its treatment of alternative therapies. An excellent and comprehensive resource for many of the issues and questions regarding cancer and its treatment.
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/rosenthal/Guide6.html

Dietary Supplements Resource List
A list of resources/links with information about supplements created by the USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center.
www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/pubs/bibs/gen/dietsupp.html

MAC Pharma Network
Free information and affordable products for all your health and wellness needs.
www.mac-pharma-network.com

Natural Herbal, Herbal Remedies and Medicine Guide
offering useful reviews, articles and information.
www.naturalherbsguide.com

Research on Dietary Supplements
The International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) is a database of published, international, scientific literature on dietary supplements, including vitamins, minerals, and botanicals. IBIDS is produced by the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the NIH to assist the public, health care providers, educators, and researchers in locating credible, scientific information on dietary supplements.
http://peaches.nal.usda.gov/ibids/journals.asp

Vitamin Supplements, Herbal and Health Supplements Guide for health conscious consumers.
www.nutrasanus.com

Cancer Links

Cancerguide. Steve Dunn's Cancer Information Page
http://cancerguide.org/index.html
Steve Dunn is a cancer survivor and has created an informative and comprehensive site that also takes a balanced look at alternative treatments. He examines the claims of the proponents of these therapies as well as the cautionary advice given by the conventional medical community. Use the following link if you want to go directly to the page on alternative therapies.
http://cancerguide.org/alternative.html

CancerLit - Link to CancerLit database (National Cancer Institute) - Accesses a bibliographic database that contains more than 1.4 million citations and abstracts from over 4,000 different sources including biomedical journals, proceedings, books, reports, and doctoral theses.
www.cancer.gov/search/cancer_literature

OncoLink - Resources and Information on Cancer from The University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center
www.oncolink.upenn.edu/

Data Bases

AGRICOLA
AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access) is a bibliographic database of citations to the agricultural literature created by the National Agricultural Library and its cooperators. Production of these records in electronic form began in 1970, but the database covers materials in all formats, including printed works from the 15th century. The records describe publications and resources encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines, including animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and farming systems, agricultural economics, extension and education, food and human nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences.
http://agricola.nal.usda.gov

CRISP - Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (National Institutes of Health) –
Information on research projects and programs supported by the Department of Health and Human Services.
www-commons.cit.nih.gov/crisp/

Infotrieve MedLine Interface - Order abstracts and full text articles online with the "Infotrieve" Service.
www4.infotrieve.com/newmedline/search.asp

Links to Medical Journals - Links to the websites of over 1,600 medical journals.
http://peaches.nal.usda.gov/ibids/journals.asp

PubMed
PubMed is a web site created by the National Library of Medicine, allowing you to access the 9 million citations in MEDLINE as well as other medical data bases.
www4.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

United States Pharmacopeial Convention - a guide to more than 9,000 prescription and over-the-counter medications
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html

Mushrooms

North American Mycological Society - Link to the home page of the North American Mycological Society
http://namyco.org/

Virtual Library of Mycology - From Cornell University
http://mycology.cornell.edu

• 100% Used in Traditional Herbalism
• 100% Used in The Clinical Research
• Proven Effective for Therapeutic Use

There are thousands of studies proving the effectiveness of hot water extracts (liquid and dehydrated). At the date of this latest revision, on 6.23.2005, our research has not located any independent studies verifying the effectiveness of mycelium bio-mass, un-extracted mushrooms, or alcohol tinctures (hydro-alcohol "extracts"). Which product would you bet your health on?

Mushrooms are unique, stationary like a plant, yet built from chitin, the same indigestible fiber that forms the shell of a lobster. Understanding the properties of chitin is critical to understanding how to choose an effective, high-quality medicinal mushroom product.

Chitin is indigestible by humans. (1) Yet chitin, which makes up the cell walls of mushrooms and mushroom mycelium, contains the potent immune stimulating compounds common to all medicinal mushrooms – the polysaccharides. (2) Practitioners of Traditional East Asian Medicine and modern clinical researchers both use the same preparation technique to overcome this barrier, hot water.

Only a heated liquid solution can break down the indigestible chitin and release the active compounds into a concentrated, bio-available form. (3) When used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for chronic conditions or immune health medicinal mushrooms are always prepared with heat and water, as a tea or a decoction. (4,5,6,7,8) Medicinal mushrooms are never used in the un-extracted form (as mycelium bio-mass powder or dried mushroom powder), and rarely prepared as a tincture (soaked in alcohol and water in the absence of heat).

Scientific research backs this traditional preparation method. Every published, independent study on the use of medicinal mushrooms for immune health has been conducted with a hot water or hot water/alcohol extract. Every form of extraction, including precipitation with alcohol, requires a heated liquid solution to first release the polysaccharides, the primary active compounds, from the chitinous cell walls of the mushroom and mushroom mycelium.(9)

This is true for Reishi; (10,11) Coriolus versicolor; (12,13)  Maitake;(14) Shiitake;(16) and Cordyceps.(17) All of the well-known isolates are extracted in a heated aqueous solution, including Maitake Gold 404® and Maitake D Fraction®, PSK®/VPS® and PSP from Coriolus versicolor, and Lentinan and LEM from Shiitake.

According to the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia mycelium bio-mass products are inferior because of a "lack of bio-availability". This publication also states that concentrates derived through hot water extraction contain levels of active compounds that are "magnitudes higher than what is available in crude mycelium biomass preparations."(18)

At Mushroom Science we take these lessons seriously. Our dehydrated hot water extracts are formulated to deliver all of the important constituents unique to each mushroom. Every batch is analyzed for purity, contains guaranteed levels of the active compounds, and is offered as a pure extract, containing no mycelium bio-mass or ground mushrooms as filler.

End Notes

1,3,9 - Upton, R., et al. Reishi Mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) Standards of Analysis, Quality Control, and Therapeutics. American Herbal Pharmacopoeia. p. 9 (Sept. 2000).

2 - Alexopoulos, C.J., Mims, C.W. Introductory Mycology. John Wiley & Sons. p. 10, 1979.

4 - Torisu, M., et al. Significant prolongation of disease-free period gained by oral PSK (Coriolus versicolor) administration after curative surgical operation of colon cancer. Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy, 31:261-268 (1990).
5 - Xie, Z., et al. Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Commercial Press Ltd., Hong Kong, p. 201 (1988).
6 -  Liu, B., Bau, Y., Fungi Pharmacopoeia. Kiniko Press, p. 170-72 (1980).
7 - Jianzhe, Y., Icons of Medicinal Fungi from China. Science Press, Beijing p. 145 (1987).
8 - Bensky D., et al. Materia Medica of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Eastland Press, Seattle, p. 338-39 (1993).

Reishi
10 - Liu, B., Bau, Y. , Fungi Pharmacopoeia. Kiniko Press, p. 170-72 (1980).
11 - Xie, Z., et al. Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Commercial Press Ltd., Hong Kong, p. 201 (1988).

Coriolus
12 - (U.S. Patent #4,229,570)
13 - Liu, B., Bau, Y., Fungi Pharmacopoeia. Kiniko Press, p. 198-200 (1980).

Maitake
14 - Jianzhe, Y., Icons of Medicinal Fungi from China. Science Press, Beijing p. 195 (1987).

Shiitake
15 - Chihara, G., et al. Inhibition of Mouse Sarcoma 180 by Polysaccharides from Lentinus edodes (Shiitake). Nature, Vol. 222, p. 637 (1969).
16 - Liu, B., Bau, Y., Fungi Pharmacopoeia. Kiniko Press, p. 170-72 (1980).

Cordyceps
17- Bensky D., et al. Materia Medica of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Eastland Press, Seattle, p. 338-39 ( 1993).
18 - Upton, R., et al. Reishi Mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) Standards of Analysis, Quality Control, and Therapeutics. American Herbal Pharmacopoeia. p. 19 (Sept. 2000).