Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)
Oriental medicine highlights the ability of Reishi to enhance Jing (inherited energy) and eliminate stagnation (energy blockages), which can cause arthritis, bronchitis, asthma, neurasthenia, insomnia and heart disease.
Mushrooms are fascinating powerhouses of nutrients and compounds that provide many positive health benefits for humans. A single type of mushroom can contain hundreds of beneficial bioactive substances.
Modern science has discovered many mushrooms, many mushroom health-promoting actions, including lipid-lowering, immunomodulatory, antitumour, antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, antiparasitic, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic and more.
Scientific evidence
In the last 30 years, thousands of scientific articles on medicinal mushrooms have been published and multiple trials support the broad clinical application of their active compounds:
- Lentinan and PSK are used in cancer treatment in Japan for the benefits to a patient’s immune system
- Erinacines support neurogenesis and repair of nervous tissues
- Lenthionine is a powerful antiseptic used in toothpaste
- Triterpenes have potent anti-inflammatory effects, mimicking corticosteroids
- Beta-glucans are used in creams for wound healing in patients suffering from diabetes
Mycotherapy
Mycotherapy focuses on the research and development of mushrooms as nutritional supplements for the maintenance and improvement of both human and animal health.
Our scientific team coined this term in 2006 to refer to therapy using mushrooms. Hifas da Terra is committed to health and wellbeing through the continuing research of Mycotherapy and the innovative development of high-quality supplements for the nutritional support of pathologies and imbalances.
The power of nature
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
This sentence, encapsulating Darwin’s view of evolution, without knowing it, describes the nature of fungi, living organisms halfway between plants and animals that have survived many great extinctions.
The oldest kingdom on earth
Mushrooms are part of the Fungi kingdom, fascinating organisms that have survived by evolving and adapting to ever-changing scenarios. It is estimated that there are 1.5 million species of fungi in the world. Of these, only 100,000 have been named and we barely know about a hundred in depth. They are an intelligent and adaptable kingdom that has built a chemical cloak of protection over the millennia of years they have survived on Earth. Hifas da Terra can now harness and share these protective qualities for the benefit of human health.
Fungi have grown an underground web-like network of branching mycelial threads, referred to as the mycorrhizal network or ‘the wood wide web’. Thus creating a superhighway of information sharing fibres that enables the flow of essential nutrients and communication around an ecosystem.
Science also owes much to fungi with the discovery of Penicillin and its antibiotic properties that have changed the course of modern medicine.
The value of ancient wisdom
In the treatise of medicinal herbs Pen Ts’ao, the famous Shen Nong, one of the fathers of Chinese medicine, refers to Reishi as “A divine fungus capable of prolonging life and harmonising physical and spiritual balance.”
In the Compendium of Materia Medica by the physician Li Shi Zhen (1518-1593) Reishi is also spoken of, “Consumed for a long time, the agility of the body will not cease and the years will lengthen like those of the immortal beings.”
In 1991, German tourists travelling through the Italian Alps found the oldest known natural mummy, known as Ötzi, dating back to 3300 BC. Scientists estimate that he died aged 46 and already had arthritis in his joints as well as intestinal parasites. In his hunter’s bag was an axe, a bow with arrows of flint and dried meat. Several fungi were also found: one to produce fire (Fomes fomentarius) and another with antibacterial properties (Piptoporus betulinus). Evidently, our early ancestors used mushrooms for health applications.
We at Hifas da Terra, want to endorse what they can do for your health.
