Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) — benefits, double extraction, fruiting body

Mycelial synergy

Four intelligences. Check them all for the complete synergy.

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✦ Reishi Mushroom · in one breath ✦

The grandmother of mushrooms — she builds in silence a ground of calm, the seal of longevity.

DailyRitual

⊹ The path of the plant

Cautions

☀ Cautions

Family: Ganodermataceae, kingdom of the Fungi. Caution in case of a known allergy to mushrooms — test with a small quantity on first use.

Anticoagulants and before surgery: Reishi can have a light antiplatelet effect. Medical advice recommended in case of anticoagulant treatment (warfarin, heparin, aspirin); use to be stopped about two weeks before an operation.

Blood pressure and antihypertensives: he can lower blood pressure. Monitor at the start of a cure if you are on an antihypertensive treatment.

Immunosuppressants and autoimmune diseases: to be avoided in case of organ transplant or of autoimmune disease under immunosuppressant treatment, Reishi being described as modulating the immune system.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding: to be avoided as a principle, for lack of sufficient data.

Legality: freely available in France and in the European Union.

If in doubt: your doctor before the plant. This page documents a lineage and a traditional use, not a medical protocol.

⊹ Community voices

What the community murmurs.

All reviews (19) →

4.3/5

Average · 19 reviews

Breakdown

5 ★13

4 ★2

3 ★1

2 ★0

1 ★3

We are loving the Reishi Mushroom and drink it daily. This product tastes great and is high quality.

Hanni Guinn

Daily · verified purchase · 13 September 2024

Everything alright. Thanks! Nice big pieces! Very suitable for making tea

Heiner

Daily · 13 March 2023

Best quality, cleanly shipped and great effect.

Dagmar Wolf

Daily · 10 April 2024

Read all 19 reviews →

⊹ ASK YOUR QUESTION ⊹

Ask the Forest about Reishi Mushroom

408 books digested, 97,512 indexed passages. She answers on lineages, synergies, cautions, ritual variations.

⊹ FREQUENT QUESTIONS ⊹

We answer.

What are the benefits of reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)?

Reishi is an adaptogenic mushroom ranked at the top of the classical Chinese pharmacopoeia among the "superior" tonics. Taoist tradition associates her with calm of mind, sleep and longevity; studies describe her beta-glucans and triterpenes, without any promise of effect. INFUSE presents her as a ground companion, not a remedy.

Why does reishi require a double extraction?

Because her two families of compounds do not release in the same solvent — beta-glucans are water-soluble, triterpenes only alcohol-soluble. A simple herbal tea leaves about half the mushroom in the material. Double extraction (water + alcohol) captures both. The INFUSE powder extract is a dual 15:1, fruiting body, ≥20% beta-glucans and ≥4% triterpenes.

Mycelium or fruiting body, what difference for reishi?

The fruiting body is the visible, woody mushroom, rich in triterpenes and beta-glucans. Mycelium grown on grain (rice, oat) is often diluted by the cereal starch and poorer in triterpenes. INFUSE works the fruiting body exclusively, without mycelium or filler — it is the part that traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine has documented.

Why is quality reishi so bitter?

Bitterness comes from triterpenes (the ganoderic acids). In Chinese tradition, the more bitter the reishi, the more she is held as vigorous — bitterness is read as a marker of quality. A commercial reishi without bitterness has often lost her triterpenes, by failed extraction or dilution. Tradition softens her with honey, or associates her with liquorice, jujube, goji berries.

How do I prepare reishi as a decoction?

The traditional Chinese way is the long decoction. Gently simmer about 5 to 10 g of dried pieces in one litre of water — without boiling, boiling degrades the polysaccharides — until reduced by half. Strain and drink warm. The pieces, very woody, reinfuse several times by extending the cooking time.

Is reishi legal in France?

Yes. Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) is freely sold in France and the European Union as mushroom and food supplement. She is not a controlled substance.

Where does INFUSE's reishi come from?

From Siberia, in wild harvest, gathered at the heart of winter in forests far from human activity. Most reishi sold online are cultivated in greenhouses in China; INFUSE has chosen wild. Lot analysis in France. The details (harvester, lot, certification) are in process of confirmation.

How long before I feel something with reishi?

Reishi is not a plant of immediate effect. Tradition and contemporary herbalists describe her as a ground mushroom, of whom we speak in weeks and months rather than hours. She is classically used in a cure of 7 to 21 days, followed by a pause, or in a long cure.

Reishi, chaga, lion's mane or cordyceps — which to choose?

These are four complementary mushrooms. Reishi is associated with calm and deep sleep, chaga with immunity and the boreal cold, lion's mane with cognitive terrain, cordyceps with breath and energy. Many keep them together as a mycelial stack rather than choosing. INFUSE offers them separately.

⊹ Chapter · Questions ⊹

Ask, answer, share.

One question, one answer — sometimes several voices. The community answers first; INFUSE steps in when it should.

⊹ The forest says ⊹

« Every plant is a door. Reishi Mushroom opens onto a long companionship — listen to it more than you measure it. »

Essence

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⊹ CHAPTER II · ESSENCE ⊹

The plant of the immortals. The grandmother of mushrooms. The seal of longevity painted on the silk of the emperors.

For two thousand years, the Chinese Taoists named Reishi the mushroom of the *xian* — those beings who had learned no longer to die — and sought him, for years on end, the way one searches for a treasure. In the year 1004, legend reports that an imperial edict decreed that any wild Reishi discovered must be brought to the palace. For an entire millennium, he was painted on the silk of the emperors as the seal of longevity.

What he offers is rare, literally. Chinese medicine counts him among the very few tonics that touch the Three Treasures at once — jing the essence, qi the breath, shen the spirit. Almost every plant nourishes only one. He holds them together. Hence his place at the very top of the pharmacopoeia — among the superior tonics, those one takes for a whole life to solidify the terrain rather than force an effect.

𖥸𖥸𖥸

And he is a being from another kingdom. Mushrooms are closer to animals than to herbs on the tree of the living. To drink him is an alliance between kingdoms. His name, *lingzhi* (靈芝), carries that character ling reserved for mediums and efficacious spirits — "the mushroom of the soul that acts". Before being a pharmacological category, Reishi was held to be a *being*.

He is also called the grandmother of mushrooms. Aged. Slow. Deeply bitter. Built over years before fruiting. She has seen it all, she no longer runs, she transmits without noise. Her teaching holds in a few words:

The calm of the *shen* precedes wisdom. One builds the ground before seeking the adventure.

INFUSE works her as wild Siberian fruiting body, double extraction (water and alcohol) to release her polysaccharides and her triterpenes together. Without the double extraction, half the gift stays locked away. The grandmother does not give up her secrets in a single cooking.

For those who inscribe themselves in the long road.

Signature INFUSEIntensity · scored out of 10

Intensity · scored out of 10
calm of the shen		10/10
long deep cure		10/10
Three Treasures jing-qi-shen		10/10
grandmother of mushrooms		9/10
double extraction required		10/10

Register*lingzhi* mushroom of the spirit that acts, *mannentake* 10,000 years, seal of longevity, Taoist immortality, grandmother of mushrooms

Shennong Ben Cao Jing · the goddess Magu · Shou Lao + the Eight Immortals · the 1004 edict · Siberian wild fruiting body

Tradition

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⊹ CHAPTER III · TRADITION ⊹

Reishi is the first medicinal mushroom written into human history. He figures in the Shennong Ben Cao Jing — one of the oldest pharmacopoeia treatises in the world, attributed to the mythical emperor Shennong, the "Divine Farmer" — where he is classed shang pin (上品), the superior category of the remedies of immortals, reputed safe for long-term use. For the Taoists, he is the plant of the xian immortals, and one of the rare tonics said to act on the Three Treasures: jing (the essence), qi (the breath), shen (the spirit) — a rare combination, where most plants tonify only one or two.

The goddess Magu and the wine of immortality. Magu, "the Hemp Maiden", is one of the best-loved Taoist immortals. Legend tells that she reached immortality by drinking a wine infused with Reishi under the reign of Emperor Huan (146-167 CE). She is depicted young, carrying a basket of peaches of immortality, accompanied by a deer. She is invoked for grandmothers' birthdays: Reishi became the plant of the eternal wise feminine.

Held by the immortals. In Taoist iconography, Reishi is shown in the hands of Shou Lao — the god of longevity, an old man with an outsized crown holding a staff and a peach — and of the Eight Immortals (Ba Xian). The Taoist temples were called "dwellings of the mushrooms". The alchemists (*dan-shi*) sought Reishi in the mountains alongside cinnabar and gold, as one of the key components of the inner elixir (neidan) — the Taoist path that turns the body into living cinnabar.

More precious than gold. For centuries, in imperial China, wild Reishi was worth more than gold by weight, reserved for the court. Legend reports that an edict of Emperor Chen Sung, in the year 1004, ordered that any wild reishi found in the Empire be brought to the palace — a plant centralised by decree, like a strategic metal.

In Japan — Mannentake. He is called mannentake, "the mushroom of ten thousand years" — longevity as signature. He figures in the Nihon Shoki (720), considered a "plant brought by the Buddha". In the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori monogatari, Heian period, 9th-10th century), one of the oldest Japanese narratives, a magical mushroom grows on Mount Fuji and confers immortality — tradition readily identifies it with Reishi. The Japanese Buddhist monasteries have cultivated him since the 14th century to support meditative calm.

The modern democratisation. For two thousand years, wild Reishi remained exceedingly rare. Commercial cultivation, developed at the beginning of the 1970s by the Japanese mycologist Shigeaki Mori and Chinese researchers, has democratised this once-imperial treasure. Today, anyone can drink him — but the wild one remains rare.

Preparation

⊹ CHAPTER IV · PREPARATION ⊹

Reishi has an earthy, deeply bitter taste — and that bitterness is not a fault to correct: it is the sign of his vigour. INFUSE offers him as a powder (20 g, 50 g) and as a powdered extract 15:1 double extraction, fruiting body (30 g).

Form	Preparation	Use marker
Powder 20 g / 50 g	1 tsp (≈ 3-5 g) in a hot drink (plant milk, water ~80 °C) or a smoothie	In the morning, as a daily gesture
Powdered extract 15:1 dual, 30 g	≈ 0.5 g in a hot drink	1 to 2 times a day, as a cure
Decoction (dried pieces, classic path)	5-10 g simmered 2-3 h in 1 L, without boiling	The complete Chinese path

The powder, in the morning — a teaspoon (≈ 3-5 g) in a hot drink or a smoothie. Tradition readily uses him in the morning for his tonic side; some prefer him in the evening for his calmer face. A marker, not a dosage.

The double-extraction extract — the most complete form. Because the beta-glucans of Reishi are soluble in water and his triterpenes only in alcohol, a simple tea leaves about half the mushroom aside. The INFUSE powdered extract is a 15:1 dual (water + alcohol), ≥20 % beta-glucans, ≥4 % triterpenes — about 0.5 g, once or twice a day, in a hot drink.

The long decoction — the classic Chinese path, for whoever wants the whole gesture. 5 to 10 g of dried pieces simmered gently in a litre of water (without boiling: boiling degrades the polysaccharides) until reduced by half. Strain, drink hot. The fruiting body is so woody that the pieces can be re-infused several times, lengthening the cooking each round.

The bitterness is traditionally softened with honey, or Reishi is paired with liquorice, jujube, goji berries.

Suggested ritual

The background cure

For those who are not after the flash, but after the ground.

Choose a window — one to three weeks, rather than an isolated gesture. Reishi is spoken to as a cure, not as a dose
Prepare in the morning, without haste — the powder in a hot drink, or the decoction simmering while you begin the day
Taste the bitterness without fleeing it — let the earthiness settle in; that is already entering into relationship with a being of another kingdom
Hold the regularity — it is not the first morning that speaks, it is the fifteenth. You note what settles, without expecting anything precise
Take a pause between two cures — the slowness is part of the gesture

No revelation promised. Just a steadier ground, built in silence.

We answer.

What are the benefits of reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)?

Why does reishi require a double extraction?

Mycelium or fruiting body, what difference for reishi?

Why is quality reishi so bitter?

How do I prepare reishi as a decoction?

Is reishi legal in France?

Yes. Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) is freely sold in France and the European Union as mushroom and food supplement. She is not a controlled substance.

Where does INFUSE's reishi come from?

How long before I feel something with reishi?

Reishi, chaga, lion's mane or cordyceps — which to choose?

Form

Preparation

Use marker

Powder 20 g / 50 g

1 tsp (≈ 3-5 g) in a hot drink (plant milk, water ~80 °C) or a smoothie

In the morning, as a daily gesture

Powdered extract 15:1 dual, 30 g

≈ 0.5 g in a hot drink

1 to 2 times a day, as a cure

Decoction (dried pieces, classic path)

5-10 g simmered 2-3 h in 1 L, without boiling

The complete Chinese path