Reishi Mushrooms Red Whole (Ganoderma lucidum; Ling Zhi) 1 lb: C

This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Used as a decoction, extract, tincture, food additive and supplement. Reishi is a traditional tonic used to nourish, tonify, and supplement the whole body as it removes toxins and disperses accumulation. It calms and nourishes the nervous system, strengthens the lungs, protects and stimulates the liver and helps the body adapt to stress. The reishi mushroom is classified botanically as a polypore, a group of hard, woody, bracket-like mushrooms that decompose wood. Because of this hard and woody nature, reishi is not eaten, but cut into pieces and made into a thick, boiled tea, a decoction. This traditional water decoction involves boiling reishi at low temperatures for 2-6 hours. The water soluble compounds are left in the decoction and the mushroom pieces are discarded. A water decoction will contain most of the polysaccharides and some, but not all of the triterpenes. An alcoholic tincture, that is, an alcohol decoction, or, more properly, an aged alcohol soak, will contain both the water-soluble and most of the water insoluble elements. Considered among the most powerful natural healing herbs in Asia, Red Reishi was very rare and expensive to obtain until recently. Reishi is rich in active organic compounds such as polysaccharides, amino acids, proteins, triterpenes, ascorbic acid, sterols, lipids, alkaloids, a glucose, a courmarine glycoside, volatile oil, riboflavin and more. These compounds are being studied for their positive effects on the immune system, including anti-tumor activity. Asian cultures have also used Reishi, rendered in jade, as a talisman worn around the neck. Sometimes, whole dried Reishi are placed in the home to ward off evil. William B. Stavinoha & Neera Satsangi University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio: http://www.kyotan.com/lectures/lectures/Lecture4.html: Prospective and retrospectively collected data on men and women suggest that use of non steroidal antiinflammatory drugs is associated with reduced risk of Alzheimers disease. This research heightens the importance of the ancient reports where Ganoderma lucidum was praised for its effect of increasing memory and preventing forgetfulness in old age reported in Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing vol. 1 as early as 456-536 AD. Research on mice using orally or topically administered Ganoderma lucidum provides evidence that Ganoderma lucidum has anti-inflammatory activity. This pharmacological activity may provide the basis for its activity on memory in old age, although we do not know as yet that Ganoderma lucidum can enter the brain and exert antiinflammatory activity. In clinical studies Chang (1994) at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center reported that applications of Ganoderma should be studied and considered for (1) chemoprophylaxis of cancer in individuals at high risk for developing cancer (2) adjuvent use in the prevention of metastasis or recurrence of cancer (3)