Medicinal Mushrooms

Healing Mushrooms

Beyond culinary pleasure, the mushroom has healing aspects that are just as important.

It is good to enter the world of mushrooms with therapeutic aims.

Indeed, while the mushrooms we use as food bring us incomparable gastronomic pleasure, there are also mushrooms with health purposes quite unknown to many.
It is estimated that there are about 140,000 existing varieties, from microscopic mushrooms to those of considerable size (5.5 km in diameter with a weight of 100 tonnes for one mycelium, USA).

The therapeutic properties of mushrooms are found in its 3 constituent elements: the fruiting body, the mycelium, the culture medium.

The fruiting body is the visible part which includes the cap, the stem and the bulb. It is the reproductive organ, capable of releasing 40,000,000 spores in 1 hour. The fruiting body is rich in polysaccharides (with antibacterial, antifungal or antiviral action) and beta-glucans.

The mycelium, through which the mushroom feeds, fulfils 3 basic functions:

•     The secretion of powerful enzymes acting on the decomposition of organic matter (e.g. wood),
•     The absorption of carbon elements necessary for the survival of its cells (a vital role in several ecosystems),
•     The decomposition of necrotic animal, plant and fungal mass. Thus improving the organic part of the soil.

The mycelium also secretes immune enzymes stimulating natural defences, lipids and saccharides. It also contains B and D vitamins and steroid-like compounds that regulate inflammatory states.

There is an intimate proximity between mushrooms and humans: the similar DNA level between mushrooms and humans is about 33%, whereas it is only 10% between humans and plants.

Mushrooms help us develop natural defence means (penicillin). Their medicinal virtues have been discovered and used for centuries in many countries (Japan, China, South America, USA, …).
And now many scientific studies have come to prove all their benefits.

So whatever your problem: erase fatigue, stimulate immunity, protect cells and fight ageing, come and discover cordyceps, maitake, shitake, reishi…the results are often very surprising.