Tincture of Lion's mane prepared from 1:1 Organic Mushroom Extract
Is the product made from mushrooms or mycelium?
Even though the label may say “mushroom”, you need to look at the Supplement Facts panel. For example, does it say Reishi mushroom? Reishi mushroom mycelium? Or Reishi mycelium? Some products will list the latin name, Ganoderma lucidum, without mentioning mushroom or mycelium.
Honest companies will reveal if the product is mycelium. They will also state in the “Other Ingredients” that there is grain or myceliated grain. Note that it is a requirement for herbal products to state “plant part” and also whether there are other unrelated materials present.
Many companies selling mycelium products will have the word “mushroom” everywhere. In their literature, label, website. Seeing the word mushroom so many times can obscure the actual product – low potency mycelium on grain.
Why are there so many companies selling mycelium on grain (MOG)?
MOG is actually nothing more than what commercial mushroom growers call “grain spawn”. Grain spawn is cheap to produce and is therefore economical to grow in North America. Unfortunately, mycelium grown on grain or rice contains minimal amounts of the important compounds that are in medicinal mushrooms. Myceliated grain is cheap to produce, often cheap to purchase, but the lack of medicinal compounds makes it gram for gram the most expensive product on the market.
Can I trust Chinese mushrooms? All I ever hear are stories of how polluted it is in China.
Any company selling food or herbal products grown in China will be required to run detailed analyses. First and foremost will be a Heavy Metals test. Then it will be important to test for agricultural chemicals and microbial contamination. Call the company and ask if their mushrooms meet the standards set for these categories.
Nammex gets all its mushrooms deep in the mountains of China, far from the lowland industrial pollution. Our mushrooms come from the ancient Chinese heartland, the original source of world mushroom cultivation. We have a rigorous testing program that all products must meet before they are released.
I have a product that says it’s mycelium and mushrooms. Is that a good combination?
Some companies make the claim that their product has “all stages”, or is a “unique combination” of mushrooms and mycelium. They may also claim this is therefore “full spectrum”. They make further claims that this provides a more diverse menu of medicinal compounds. A mushroom and its mycelium are actually made of similar tissue, but with important differences. Mushrooms are genetically more complex and have more medicinal properties.
Look to see if the companies that make this claim actually give you a percentage of each fungal part. One company that makes this claim uses only 10% mushroom in one of their products. Another doesn’t even state how much of their mycelium product is actual mushroom.
Don’t be fooled. Mushrooms are more expensive and therefore likely to be left out or included in small amounts just to make the claim of being present. Call these companies and ask them to provide some guarantee of the actual amount of “plant part” presence.
Did you know that a mycelium product cannot be labeled as a mushroom?
FDA states this clearly in Compliance Policy Guide, Section 585.525.
