chaga mushroom

The researchers say that Chaga mushrooms growing on birch trees are a "promising" subject for further research.

Inonotus obliquus (chaga mushroom) is a sclerotium growing mostly on birch trees in northern climates.

Laboratory studies on extract of chaga mushroom has indicated possible future potential in cancer therapy, as an antioxidant, in immunotherapy, and as an anti-inflammatory.

The chaga mushroom is considered a medicinal mushroom in Russian and Eastern European folk medicine; medical evidence is emerging.

Chaga mushrooms are referenced as a treatment for cancer in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward which was published in 1967.

However, the Chaga mushroom converts betulin into betulinic acid, and many internet sources state Chaga's betulinic acid is bioavailable, even when taken orally.

Today's fountain of youth is filled with a strange brew of fairy-tale herbs and chemicals: Chaga mushrooms, osmolytes, coffeeberry extract, polyhydroxy acids, silver tip white tea, rhodiola.

Scientists at the Vector Institute, near Novosibirsk, say that they have three different mushrooms all of which could be used in antiretroviral medicines but that the Chaga mushroom is showing the most promise.

Its superpowers come from the mood-boosting herb ashwahandha, which counters stress, and chaga mushrooms, which are full of B vitamins and pantothenic acid to support the adrenal glands and the digestive system.