Mushroom extracts, explained properly

What is a mushroom extract?

A mushroom extract is what you get when dried mushroom is soaked, heated or steeped in a solvent, usually hot water, alcohol, glycerin or a combination, and the liquid is kept while the spent mushroom is thrown away. The spent material is called the marc. The point is to pull compounds out of the tough cell walls of the mushroom into something you can actually take.

That is the difference between an extract and a plain mushroom powder, which is the whole dried mushroom, ground up. Neither word tells you how much mushroom went in, which part of the fungus was used, or what the solvent was. The label has to tell you that, and a lot of labels do not.

Jump to: fruiting body or mycelium, extract or powder, solvents, dual extracts, alcohol-free extracts, tinctures, the ratio, who made it, what we make.

Fruiting body, mycelium and biomass

The mushroom you can see is the fruiting body, the reproductive part that pushes up to drop spores. The main organism is the mycelium, a web of fine threads running through soil, wood or whatever the fungus is feeding on. Mike has written about that side of it in The Mushroom Is Not the Organism. On a supplement label the words mean three different materials:

• Fruiting body. The actual mushroom: for lion’s mane the shaggy white cascade, for reishi the hard glossy bracket. Grown, harvested, dried, then milled or extracted.
• Mycelium. The thread network of the fungus. For supplements it may be grown in liquid culture or on a solid substrate.
• Biomass, or mycelium on grain. When mycelium is grown on grain such as oats or rice, the fungus never eats all of it, so the lot is dried and milled together. Part of what you are buying is grain. “Myceliated grain” tells you what the material is. “Full spectrum” does not.

	Fruiting body	Mycelium (liquid culture)	Mycelium on grain
What it is	The mushroom itself	Fungal threads grown in a tank	Fungal threads plus the grain they grew on
Grain in the product	No	No	Yes, often a substantial part
Used in human trials?	Yes	Yes	Yes

None of this makes mycelium a con. It is a real part of the fungus and all three forms turn up in human research. It also works the other way: the one trial that tested lion’s mane fruiting body head to head against a fruiting body and mycelium blend found neither beat placebo, so “fruiting body” describes the material, not a proven advantage. The details are on lion’s mane human research.

The useful thing is knowing which material you are buying. Grym uses fruiting bodies.

Solvents: hot water, alcohol and glycerin

Mushrooms carry two broad groups of compounds that most of the research looks at. The polysaccharides, including beta-glucans, which hot water favours, and a range of less water-soluble compounds, including some triterpenes and lion’s mane’s hericenones, which ethanol extraction favours. There is no single solvent that gets everything, and every choice leaves something behind.

Method	Tends to pull	Tends to leave behind	Alcohol in the bottle
Hot water only	Water-soluble compounds, including beta-glucans	Much of the alcohol-soluble fraction	No
Alcohol only (traditional tincture)	Alcohol-soluble compounds	Much of the water-soluble fraction	Yes
Hot water and glycerin	Water-soluble compounds	Some of the alcohol-soluble fraction	No
Dual: hot water and alcohol	Both groups	Less, but no method gets everything	Yes

What is a dual extract?

Dual extraction means extracting the mushroom in hot water and in alcohol, usually ethanol mixed with water, and combining the two liquids. Some makers run water first, some alcohol first, some add a further stage and call it triple extraction. There is no single standard recipe.

“Dual extracted” describes a process. It is not, on its own, a quality score. Dual extraction is a method, not a quality score. It makes sense when you want both groups in one liquid. Ethanol extraction favours less water-soluble compounds including hericenones, while hot water favours polysaccharides. Our Lion’s Mane uses both steps, which is why we describe it as a dual extract. It is also worth knowing that no published human trial has yet used a liquid water-and-alcohol lion’s mane extract, so “dual extraction is evidence-backed” is not something anyone can currently claim, us included. The reason to choose it is chemistry.

Alcohol-free extracts and what glycerin does

You can make a mushroom extract without alcohol: hot water only, hot water and vegetable glycerin, a powdered extract, or an alcohol extract with the alcohol evaporated off, which the label should state. Vegetable glycerin is a clear, thick, sweet-tasting liquid made from plant oils, used widely in food, and at high enough strength it helps keep a water-based liquid stable.

Grym Drops Reishi uses hot water and vegetable glycerin, giving an alcohol-free extract.

Alcohol would favour more of some less water-soluble compounds, including Reishi’s triterpenes. Glycerin is therefore not a like-for-like replacement for alcohol, which is why this is described as a glycerin extract rather than a dual extract.

The hot-water stage extracts the water-soluble fraction, including beta-glucans.

Is a tincture the same as an extract?

Every tincture is an extract, but not every extract is a tincture. In herbal practice a tincture is material steeped in alcohol and water, then strained. Because an alcohol-only tincture leaves most of a mushroom’s water-soluble fraction behind, many mushroom “tinctures” are really dual extracts. Some sellers call glycerin products tinctures too. The name is a starting point, not an answer: check the solvent, the ratio and the part of the fungus.

Does a mushroom extract contain alcohol?

It depends entirely on how it was made. Dual extracts and traditional tinctures do; the ABV should be on the label. Glycerin and hot-water extracts do not. Grym Drops Lion’s Mane is 25% ABV. Grym Drops Reishi is alcohol-free.

Who made it, and where

Somebody grew the mushroom and somebody extracted it. Sometimes that happens in one place, sometimes the supply chain stretches across several countries.

For a UK food supplement, the label should identify the UK business responsible for the product.

The current Grym Lion’s Mane and Reishi are grown and extracted in Wales.

Our Grower

What the research does and does not say

There is human research on lion’s mane and reishi, and less of it than the marketing suggests. Most trials are small, many are commercially funded, and plenty found nothing between the groups. None of them tested our products, and evidence for an ingredient is not evidence for a particular bottle. The overview is on The Science, with every study on lion’s mane human research and reishi human research.

Questions people ask

Are mushroom extracts legal in the UK?

Lion’s mane and reishi are sold in the UK as food supplements, which cannot claim to treat, cure or prevent anything. Some other species and forms are novel foods and cannot be sold without authorisation, which is part of why our Cordyceps is taking time.

Are liquid extracts better than capsules?

Not automatically. A liquid is easy to measure and mix into a drink; a capsule is convenient and has no taste. What went in matters more: the part of the fungus, the solvent and the amount of mushroom.

How do I compare two mushroom extracts?

Put the labels side by side and look for the part of the fungus, the solvent, the ratio and the maker. If one is missing, that is your answer. Our label checklist turns it into eight questions.

Do you sell mushroom extracts wholesale?

Yes, to independent shops, hamper and gift businesses. See trade and wholesale.