Lol never tried that. I think they taste great but for medicine? Naaah…

I know it’s a common use of polypores, like Inonotus obliquus (chaga), several Ganoderma species, Trametes versicolor etc, in many countries. They are supposed to strengthen your immune system among other kinds of benefits.
Most of them, if not all(?) have a bitter taste, which often is an indication of bioactive compounds, but since I’m not fond of bitter tasting food, I haven’t tried them.
And how will one know if it works..?

Generally speaking, bitter tasting foods are healthier…although not as pleasant :) I take my tinctures diluted in water or juice.

I was just curious to know how many mushroom foragers here were doing it for food vs. medicine.

Thanks!

It seems that it’s not a western european habit to use mushrooms as medicine.
Inspired by old asian tradition to use healthbringing mushrooms (big industry nowadays) I have seen that it has become a growing trend in USA to try them.

I can’t agree that bitter taste in food in general is healty. It indicates presence of alkaloids, of which some are poisonous, but some are supposed to have positive effects in the right amounts.

Take care, Barbara :-)

I myself am a fan of plant (and possibly fungi) tinctures.  They are a wonderful healing modality for so many reasons, not to mention a great way to preserve the medicinal properties.

Yes, that’s true of the alkaloids, but also true of the phytonutrients. It will take a lot of studying and research for me to educate myself on these matters, but I am so enjoying the process :)

Thanks for your feedback, Irene, it is greatly appreciated!

Every autumn there are a couple of threads about psychoactive Psilocybe and Conocybe species, but that probably doesn’t count as “medicinal”.

Well as we say in both permaculture and herbal medicine, it depends. Water and alcohol extract different constituents of herbs, so higher/lower proof depends on what you are wanting to extract and that usually comes from what the point of the final medicine is. For every herbalist who says reishi is best at x concentration, another will say they’ve had great results with y. There is also an issue about heat (heating can release/activate some parts of plants/fungi that wouldn’t be otherwise). In general heat/long decoction will extract more immune properties, alcohol will get the adaptogenic properties.

If you are doing a double extraction, then the final alcohol% is going to be different i.e. you can make a 96% tincture, but not using a method that involves decoction as well.

I use reishi as a decoction, and haven’t made tincture yet, but here are the recipes I would consult. They come from expert level herbal medicine practitioners (Michael Moore and Robyn Klein. Klein is a hardcore scientist, if that’s the important thing).