Organic Reishi Mushroom Extract Supplements

What is Reishi?

Reishi is a hard, woody bracket fungus that grows on hardwood, dark red and lacquered on top. It is not a culinary mushroom. You cannot cook it into anything, and it has been prepared as a decoction, a long simmer in water, for as far back as the written record on it goes.

In Chinese it is lingzhi, and it appears in the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, a materia medica compiled around two thousand years ago. It was rare enough then to be reserved for people who could afford rare things. It has only been reliably cultivated since the 1970s, which is why it is affordable now.

What is Reishi taken for?

Sleep, stress and immune support. It is the one mushroom in our range taken at night, and people who take it in the morning tend to report that it does not suit them there.

Reishi is described in the traditional literature as calming rather than sedating, and that distinction matters. It is not a sleeping tablet and it does not work like one. What people report is falling asleep more easily rather than being knocked out.

What does the research show?

Reishi has the largest body of human trials of any mushroom we sell. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled 17 clinical trials across 971 participants and found significant improvements in BMI, serum creatinine, glutathione peroxidase and resting heart rate.

That is the deepest clinical record of any mushroom on this site, and the reviewers call for larger trials to build on it, which is exactly what a promising body of evidence attracts. Every citation on this page links out so you can read them yourself.

A separate pilot trial reported improved fatigue and physical wellbeing scores in patients undergoing endocrine therapy, using Reishi spore powder. A different preparation and a clinical setting, and an encouraging signal from a mushroom people have taken for exactly that reason for centuries.

How much should I take?

One serving daily. That is 1,660 mg of the extract powder, a slightly heaped half teaspoon, or 900 mg in capsule form, which is three capsules. The 100 g pouch holds 60 servings and the 120-capsule bottle holds 40.

Take it in the evening, an hour or two before bed. Reishi is the only one of our extracts with a time of day that genuinely matters, and taking it in the morning is the most common way to conclude it does nothing for you.

Powder or capsules?

The same extract in both. The difference with Reishi is taste, and it is not a small difference: Reishi is properly bitter, more so than any other mushroom in the range. That bitterness is the triterpenes, so it is a sign the extract is doing its job, but it does not make it pleasant.

Most people choose capsules for Reishi, and that is the honest recommendation. If you want the powder, it sits better in cocoa, chai or anything already spiced than it does in coffee or water.

What does 30% beta-glucans mean?

Beta-glucans are the polysaccharides most of the research on functional mushrooms concerns, and the percentage is the honest way to compare two products. Ours is tested at a minimum of 30% per batch.

Watch for a "polysaccharide" figure quoted instead. Starch is a polysaccharide, so a product padded with grain substrate can post a high polysaccharide number while carrying very few beta-glucans.

How is it extracted?

Hot water, at 10:1. Ten kilos of dried fruiting body reduce to one kilo of extract. Hot water is the traditional preparation for Reishi and the method behind nearly all of the human research: the decoction is how it has been taken for centuries.

Reishi is too woody and too fibrous to eat, and its cell walls are chitin, which passes straight through you. The extraction is not a processing step, it is the entire point.

Fruiting body or mycelium?

Ours is fruiting body only. No grain, no substrate, nothing added to make up the weight. Cheap Reishi is usually mycelium grown on a grain substrate and milled with the grain still in it, which is why a beta-glucan figure and an extract ratio on the pack matter more than the price on it.

How do you spot a weak Reishi extract?

• The label says mycelium, myceliated grain or "full spectrum" rather than fruiting body.
• No extract ratio is printed anywhere on the pack.
• A polysaccharide percentage is quoted instead of a beta-glucan percentage.
• No batch number, and no certificate of analysis you can actually open.
• It does not taste bitter. Real Reishi extract does.