Forever Reishi

REISHI, whose botanical name is GANODERMA LUCIDUM, is an eastern mushroom, which has been used for a long time to increase health and longevity. It is a big, dark mushroom, shiny on the outside, with a wooden consistency, which grows mostly on oak and chestnut wood. The word lucidus in Latin means “shiny” or “gleaming” and refers to the very shiny mushroom surface.

The GANODERMA LUCIDUM, has been known for over 4,000 years in the Chinese culture (where it’s called LINGZHI) and in the Japanese one (where it’s called REISHI or MANNENTAKE). It was used by the emperor only, to whom it should ensure healthiness, strength, sexual power and longevity. Chinese Traditional Medicine considers REISHI one of the best curative remedies, both for the body and the mind, and for centuries it has been acclaimed as “divine herb”, “spiritual power herb”, “miraculous mushroom”, “immortality mushroom” or “elixir for long life”. It has been worshiped as a divine herb with exceptional properties.

The extraordinary properties of this mushroom are the result of a set of functional substances extracted form the various parts of the mushroom, including the myceliums, the spores and the body.

In a research on GANODERMA LUCIDUM’s non-volatile components, it has been acknowledged that the mushroom contains 26-28% of carbohydrates, 3-5% of crude grease, 59% of crude fiber and 7-8% of crude protein. Apart from these components, the mushrooms contain a wide variety of bioactive molecules, such as terpenoids, steroids, phenols, nucleotides and their derivatives, glycoproteins and polysaccharides, which are the main physiologically active components in GANODERMA LUCIDUM.

The specific applications and health benefits include the control of blood glucose levels, modulation of the immune system, hepatic protection, antioxidant and dermoprotective properties. Polysaccharides and Peptidoglycans Mushroom are known for the variety of polysaccharides structures with high molecular weight and bioactive polyglycans they produce, which can be found in every part of the mushroom.

Polysaccharides represent structurally various biological macromolecules, with broad physical- chemical properties. GANODERMA LUCIDUM’s polysaccharides (GL- PSS) are responsible for a wide variety of biochemical activities, such as anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic, antiulcer, antitumorigenic and immunostimulant activities.

GANODERMA LUCIDUM has isolated several bioactive peptidoglycans, such as proteoglycans (GLPG; with antiviral activity), with immuno- modulating properties (GLIS), PGY (a water-soluble glycopeptide) and GL-PS peptide.

Triterpenes
The terpenes are a class of natural compounds whose carbon structures are composed by one or more C5 isporene unit(s). Examples of terpenes are menthol (monoterpnes) and Beta-carotene (tetraterpene). Many are alkenes, even if some of them contain different functional groups and many of them are cyclical. It has been found that terpenes exercise an anti-inflammatory, antitumorigenic and lipid-lowering activity. GANODEMA LUCIDUM is clearly rich of triterpenes and this compounds class is responsible for the herb’s bitter taste. It also confers to the herb several health benefits, such as lipids reduction and antioxidant effects. The profile of the different triterpenes in GANODERMA LUCID can be used to distinguish this medicinal mushroom from other taxonomically- related species.

GANODERMA LUCIDUM

As Antioxidant

The antioxidants protect cellular components from the oxidative damage. Several components of GANODERMA LUCIDUM, polysaccharides and triterpenoids in particular, show an antioxidant activity in vitro.

It has been found that a polysaccharide bound to proteins (PBP) and a peptide polysaccharide have been able to mimic the endogenous superoxide dismutase antioxidant (SOD).

If applied on skin, these substances are able to protect it from free radicals and thus prevent the skin aging process. Furthermore, its inhibitory activity towards thyrosinase, an enzyme produced by skin’s melanocytes, is able to donate new shininess to facial skin.