Drei Pilze, drei Geschichten: Löwenmähne, Reishi und Maitake

Three Mushrooms, Three Stories: Lion’s Mane, Reishi and Maitake

Suddenly, they’re everywhere: in coffee, in capsules, and as powders on supermarket shelves. Functional mushrooms are one of the most talked-about topics in nutrition right now, but they’re hardly new. Some have been part of life in East Asia for thousands of years, both in cooking and in traditional medicine. Three are worth a closer look: Lion’s Mane, Reishi and Maitake.

Löwenmähne-Pilz wächst an einem Baumstamm im Herbstwald

Lion’s Mane: An Unusual Mushroom Catching Researchers’ Attention

With its hanging white spines, it looks more like a furry creature than a mushroom, which explains the name. In East Asia, people have eaten it and used it in traditional medicine for centuries. Researchers are now particularly interested in two groups of compounds, erinacines and hericenones, and their possible role in stimulating nerve growth factor production in the brain. Sounds promising? It is, but there’s a catch: so far, only a handful of small human studies have been carried out. It’s an exciting area of research, but we’re still a long way from firm conclusions.

Zwei rotbraune Reishi-Pilze an einem moosigen Baumstamm

Reishi: The Story Behind the “Mushroom of Immortality”

In China, it’s known as Lingzhi, meaning “herb of spiritual power”. Written references go back around 2,400 years, and people probably used it long before that. Ancient medicinal texts credited it with keeping the body light and youthful and extending life, which earned it the nickname “mushroom of immortality”. Because it was rare in the wild, it was largely reserved for the nobility for a long time. Today, it’s cultivated and readily available. Its legendary reputation lives on, while modern research is gradually working out what lies behind it.

Maitake-Pilz am Fuß eines Baumes auf dem Waldboden

Maitake: The “Dancing Mushroom” from Japan’s Forests

Its name roughly translates as “dancing mushroom”. According to legend, anyone who found it in the wild would dance with joy. That’s how rare it was. In Japan, it has long been valued both as food and for its traditional health uses, growing wild at the base of oak trees. Commercial cultivation only began in the 1980s, making it one of the more recently cultivated edible mushrooms. Shiitake, by comparison, has been grown for around 1,000 years.

Three mushrooms, three very different stories. What they share is a long history in East Asian cooking and traditional medicine, well before today’s research began. What’s changing now is that scientists are taking a closer look at their compounds and what they actually do. What can we confidently say so far? There are some early, promising studies, but most involve small groups, and much of the research has taken place in the lab rather than in people. We’re still waiting for clear answers, and that’s part of what makes this field so interesting to follow.

Source:  Benefits, side effects, and uses of Hericium erinaceus – Frontiers in Nutrition · Reishi Mushroom History – Real Mushrooms · The History of Maitake Cultivation – Mycopia · EU Novel Food Catalogue: Mushroom Status by Species

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