Organic 8 Mushroom Blend

Polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates found in various species of mushrooms among other plants. They are composed of long chains of simple sugars, such as glucose, linked together and can have various molecular structures and functions.

Polysaccharides are an important source of energy for the body and help to regulate blood sugar levels. They also help to promote healthy digestion, as they can increase the amount of good bacteria in the gut, leading to improved gut health. Polysaccharides are also believed to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which can help to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease and certain types of cancer.

In addition, some types of polysaccharides, such as beta-glucans, have been shown to have immune-boosting properties and may help to protect against infection and illness.

Each mushroom extract has been standardised to contain 30% polysaccharides. For example in the case of our muhsroom complex, each capsule contains 600mg of blended mushroom extracts, of this 600mg 30% is polysaccharides, in this case 30% of 600mg is 180mg, so each capsule contains 180mg of polysaccharides.

Our blend contains equal amounts (75mg) of the following organic mushroom extracts:

• Lions Mane
• Chaga
• Reishi
• Cordyceps
• Shiitake
• Maitake
• Oyster
• Tremella

Not all mushroom extracts are created equal - cheap mushroom extracts are unfortunately frequently mixed with starch. From here the corresponding lab tests to verify the polysaccharide content are innacurate as it is very difficult to distinguish from high-quality polysaccharides and simple starch. This explains why some lower-quality and cheaper products display a content of up to 50% polysaccharides.

A further popular method of producing cheap quality mushroom products is to grow the mushrooms on a wood and straw mixture or millet and to pulverise the complete mushroom culture (including roots, straw, wood and millet) once the fruiting bodies have finished growing. In this case the polysaccharide values are falsly inflated. What’s more, such products primarily consist of wood and straw, with little health benefits.

Our mushrooms only use the fruiting body - the part of the mushroom visible above ground, and the rest of the roots and growing medium is discarded. This ensures the proportion of polysaccharides shown in our products is the pure proportion of mushroom-typical polysaccharides – called beta-glucans.

Our mushrooms are grown on organic farms in rural China (Fujian and Jiangxi provinces), in their native habitat. Farmers here have been cultivating mushrooms for centuries in outdoor mushroom farms using wood and soil as their growing medium. We specifically choose to source our mushrooms from China. European grown mushrooms are often grown in cardboard susbtrate in indoor laboratories under artificial conditions which we believe severly inhibits their nutritional profile. We do however process our mushroom extracts in Germany before importing the finished extracts to the UK for encapsulation.