How can we make the mushroom extract more effective?

Actually, it is a problem involving a wide range.

First, we have to begin with correct material selection; material shall be correctly selected; for example, tree-cultivated red ganoderma lucidum is better than bag-cultivated ganoderma lucidum because in the process of growth, different growth substrate, that is, different rich degrees of nutrient source in ganoderma will finally result in different enrichment degrees of effective ingredients. Basswood is pure wood, and generally it has the hard woodiness and sufficient nutrient sources; not all the bag-cultivated media are the bits of wood, with other impurities, and the quality of wood bits is not good as well; therefore, the ganoderma grown will not have the high enrichment degree of effective ingredients. Thus, material selection is very important.

Then, the extracting source is divided into the mushroom fruiting body, and solid-state ferment mycelium and liquid ferment mycelium; from the perspective of activity of effective ingredients and richness degree of natural ingredients, it is the most ideal to conduct extraction with mushroom fruiting body. Mushroom solid-state cultivation mycelium will cause the impure ultimate extract due to using all the media in the utilizing process and the solid-state cultivation does not form the mushroom fruiting body; thus, many natural ingredients are missing. From the perspective of cleanliness, the mushroom liquid-state cultivation mycelium is stronger than the solid-state ferment mycelium and weaker than the mushroom fruiting body due to the too short cultivation time and the characteristic of not being able to use cultivation substrate. From the perspective of enrichment degree of effective ingredients, the liquid-state cultivation is the worst, and then it is the solid-state cultivation; and mushroom fruiting body is the best of all. In terms of the heavy metal, the liquid-state ferment mycelium contains the lowest. In general, to select the different extraction-source mushroom cultivation varieties will have the significant effect.

Third, selection of the extraction parts in the mushroom also influences the quality of extract. In consideration of cost, options are different in terms of extraction. For example, shiitake mushroom; some manufacturers may select its stem for extracting but it cannot replace the nutritional spectrum of the shiitake mushroom whole fruiting body. For example, ganoderma; some select the ganoderma bud for extracting; similarly, it cannot replace the whole nutritional ingredient of ganoderma fruiting body as well. Thus, to correctly select the extraction part will have a great influence on the effect of extract.

Fourth, the extract effect will be different for different forms of extracting materials, and the different physical forms such extracting with the whole mushroom, the mushroom fine powder, the fresh mushrooms, the sporoderm-broken powder and the mushroom block will have great differences in the ultimate extract effect.

Fifth, the extracting technology has a great influence on the effective ingredients of extract; the most proper extracting technology shall be selected for different mushrooms in case that some ingredients cannot be fully extracted and can also avoid destroying some mushroom ingredients.

Sixth, advanced degree of the extracting equipment has a great influence on the effective ingredients of mushrooms; for example, every aspect such as not strong insulating capacity, insufficient pressure, not good mixing capacity, not enough filtration and poor drying effect of the equipment can cause the influence on the maximum retention of the effective ingredients.

Seventh, the operators' technical level and practical experience are the most important; some manufacturers are not specialized in mushroom extracting but they extract the mushroom with their own extracting equipment and they do not understand it completely; thus, the products finally extracted will be not pointed and their effective ingredients cannot reach the standard or do not have the coordination effect. Therefore, mushroom extracting is technical, and it needs the operators with high technical level and experience for years.

Eighth, production environment and storage environment have a great influence on the mushroom extract, and the better mushroom extract has stricter requirements on the environment; for example, the pure mushroom extract is very easy to absorb moisture and generate agglomeration and easy to breed the microorganism and go bad; therefore, the production environment and storage environment are especially important.

Ninth, carrier addition in the extract directly influences the effectiveness of extract; it is indeed unfit for some extract not to add any carrier in the drying process, but the amount added shall be limited; if the carrier is added without any limit, then such products are low-cost and do not have too much use value. It is suggested that do not add carrier in most of the mushroom extract, so as to give more play to the effectiveness of mushroom extract. We shall be careful to select carrier as well. If you need the materials to produce a product to regulate blood sugar level, then please do not select the mushroom extract added the maltodextrin as the carrier. Therefore, the carrier has very great influence on the effectiveness of the mushroom extract.

Tenth, sometime, mushroom extract requires the reasonable formula to play its stronger role. For example, adding microorganism C in the mushroom extract finished product is more beneficial for absorption, and cooperative use of different mushrooms may have better effect, and maybe the coordinated use of the mushroom extract and Chinese herb extract enable the effect to be strengthened.