Reishi Organic

Among cultivated mushrooms, Reishi is the only one consumed due to its medicinal rather than nutritional value, being common and normally used in Eastern medicine thanks to its benefits for health, vigour and long life.

Unlike other mushrooms such as Shiitake, Reishi isn’t usually edible because of its bitter taste and hard consistency, so it is administered in the form of extract in traditional Chinese medicine and as a food supplement in the West. Among the food supplements with reishi which currently exist on the market, the capsule or vegetable capsule format is the most suitable. Reishi contains numerous bioactive constituents beneficial to the body, including terpenoids, complex sugars, fatty acids, proteins and trace elements.

What are beta-glucans?

Beta-glucans (β-glucans) are highly branched carbohydrates (sugars) found in the cell walls of bacteria, fungi, yeasts, algae, lichens and plants like oats and barley. Beta-glucans provide an important amount of fibre which makes them useful for digestive processes.^1,2

How do beta-glucans help the immune function?

Immune responses vary widely among people, genders and genetic inheritance, changing throughout life, beginning at birth and continuing through the different stages of childhood, adulthood and the elderly. Our diet modulates the immune activity in multiple ways. Commonly consumed food ingredients can influence immunity, either by interacting with immune cells directly, or by interacting with the intestinal flora indirectly—affecting, therefore, the metabolic balance.³

Initial research on glucan led to the discovery of its capability to stimulate and enhance general defence mechanisms and to promote resistance to tumours. Furthermore, additional important effects like stress reduction, hypoglycaemic effects, reduction of cholesterol levels and improvement of ulcerative colitis were subsequently demonstrated.²