Reishi Mushroom

The mycology: a being of another kingdom

Reishi is Ganoderma lucidum (with its sister species Ganoderma sichuanense), a polypore of the Ganodermataceae family. It belongs to the kingdom Fungi, distinct from the plants and, on the tree of life, closer to the animals. Reishi grows on hardwoods (oak, maple, alder, beech) and forms a hard, almost woody fruiting body whose surface shines as if lacquered. This hardness has a practical consequence: the mushroom is too tough to be eaten as it is, so it is prepared as a long decoction or as an extract.

The two families of compounds (descriptive)

Reishi's chemistry falls into two broad classes, and they govern its preparation. On one side, the polysaccharides — above all the beta-glucans (β-1,3 and β-1,6-D-glucans) — which dissolve in water. On the other, the triterpenes — more than a hundred ganoderic acids identified, built on a lanostane skeleton — which dissolve only in alcohol. These triterpenes give reishi its deep bitterness.

Bitterness as a marker of quality

Chinese tradition reads bitterness as the direct sign of the mushroom's vigour: the more concentrated the triterpenes, the more bitter the cup, and the more highly it is prized. A reishi without bitterness has usually lost its triterpenes, through a water-only extraction, through mycelium diluted by the starch of its culture grain, or in a product softened for Western palates. Sweetening the cup with honey is a traditional practice; taking the bitterness out at the source leaves a product with little left to offer.

Why the double extraction (and the fruiting body)

This follows directly from the double solubility. Like chaga and lion's mane, reishi needs two separate extractions to deliver its full range: a water decoction for the beta-glucans, an alcohol maceration for the triterpenes, then the two combined. A simple infusion leaves the triterpenes behind. The second point of quality is the part used. The fruiting body — the visible mushroom — is the part documented over the centuries by the Chinese and Japanese pharmacopoeias. Mycelium grown on grain sells for less, is often diluted by the starch of the cereal it grows on, and is poorer in triterpenes. The INFUSE extract is a dual 15:1 extract of the fruiting body, with no mycelium or filler, and declared contents (≥20% beta-glucans, ≥4% triterpenes).

What the studies report

Pharmacological research on Ganoderma lucidum is abundant and calls for careful reading. The beta-glucans are described as immunomodulatory in in vitro work and in animal models; the triterpenes are the subject of in vitro studies describing hepatoprotective and anti-inflammatory effects. We report these lines of research as they stand, as leads consistent with a traditional use more than a thousand years old, and never as a promise of effect. In the INFUSE voice, reishi stays a companion for the long run.

The name as signature: lingzhi

Lingzhi (靈芝) deserves a pause. Ling (靈) denotes subtle power, the spirit that acts, the effective invisible; it is also the character used for mediums and for supernatural beings at work. Zhi (芝) names the mushroom itself. Lingzhi therefore reads, literally, as the mushroom of the subtle spirit that acts. Japanese uses the same characters (reishi, 霊芝); mannentake (万年茸) means "the ten-thousand-year mushroom"; in Korean it is yeongji. The name "mushroom of immortality" goes back to the Han texts, where lingzhi is the mushroom of the xian immortals: a name more than two thousand years old.

Six colours, five elements

The Shennong Ben Cao Jing, the classical Chinese materia medica, describes six coloured forms of lingzhi. Five of them answer to an organ in the Five Elements system — red (chi-zhi 赤芝, Fire, Heart), blue-green (qing-zhi 青芝, Wood, Liver), yellow (huang-zhi 黃芝, Earth, Spleen), white (bai-zhi 白芝, Metal, Lung) and black (hei-zhi 黑芝, Water, Kidney) — and a sixth is purple (zi-zhi 紫芝). In this system of correspondences, the colour of the mushroom indicated its affinity for an organ. Most of the reishi traded today is red, the most available and most studied form; the other colours survive in traditional medicine and are hard to find in the West.

Sources: Shennong Ben Cao Jing (classical Chinese pharmacopoeia) · ethnobotanical and pharmacological literature on Ganoderma lucidum · INFUSE Mushroom Extracts labels 2026. Traceability details being consolidated.