The Increasing Attraction Of Medicinal Mushrooms

Only a few short years ago there were very few products on the market that were derived from mushrooms. Yet within the past few years there have been a number of news stories and articles written on the subject of medicinal mushroom properties. The Orient brought us ginseng, which became a very popular product with its many different uses. Chinese medicine has known about the healing agents of the reishi mushroom for years, so there is a good chance that their use may become as popular as ginseng.

The history of mushrooms demonstrates that several of the oldest recorded uses were as remedies for intestinal parasites, together with being used to stop bleeding and for cauterizing open sores. The mushrooms used were polypores, so named for the reason that they have pores and not gills beneath the heads. No known varieties of polypore are poisonous and they are typically found growing on trees, both alive and dead.

With a few exceptions, polypores are considered inedible because they are very fibrous and woody. But as a natural remedy this medicinal mushroom can be used as a health product in the form of poultices, extracts and teas.

Traditions of the Native Americans tell of using the different kinds of fungi to combat illnesses including smallpox and others that showed up along with the arrival of Europeans. These include varieties such as the turkey tail, chaga and reishi, together with the agarikon, which is at this time very uncommon and endangered. The agarikon is the earliest of the organic fungi used medicinally in historic European literature. Way back in 65 B.C., a Greek doctor named Dioscorides recorded the species in the Materia Medica as a natural treatment utilized to fight tuberculosis. In more recent times, an article was published stating that agarikon tea had been historically used in Polish medicine for things like and elixir for long life, for lung diseases like asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and to help stop hemorrhage and to clean wounds.

Mushrooms have started to become more popular in the West, but they are almost revered in the Orient. There are a minimum of three very popular species from Asia that are mentioned in almost every article about fungi buy prescription drugs with no prescription varieties. One of the first mentioned are the medicinal Shiitake mushrooms, which have been grown and used as antibiotics for over a thousand years. The cordyceps mushroom has been used to help improve physical abilities in athletes, as well as being used as an aphrodisiac. And the third medicinal mushroom to be mentioned is the reishi variety, which has been used in both Japan and China for at least two millennia. Many of the older temple engravings and wood carvings of the Orient pay homage to what is considered a cure all mushroom.

Mushrooms have been used for centuries as a natural form of medicine, and medicinal mushrooms are experiencing a revival these days. For example, many people are interested in shiitake buy antibiotics online health benefits attributable to the lentinan they contain. Learn more at our Medicinal Mushrooms site.

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