We've all had an exceedingly frustrating time making sense of Reishi (ganoderma lucidum) product variability.
This has been a puzzle in itself, so I reached out to a specialist lab here in Sydney to help solve it.
After a thorough tour of their amazing facility and a very pleasant morning with erudite managing director, Dr. Ernest Lacey and his equally fantastic team, some clarity has been achieved.
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4 products were tested and a PDF report is attached to this post with further details.
The product identifiers are:SM10.2_1 Kudzu Root Extract - a reishi broken spore powder, shipped from China and labelled as "kudzu root extract", claimed at 20% triterpene content and sold through resellers worldwide under different labels. Unopened, as shipped by the vendor.
SM10.2_2 Ganderma (Sistema) - a raw ganoderma powder, also originating from China and sold locally in Australia as Austral Herbs Reishi. Presumably sold in many places. Packaged in a Sistema brand container and borrowed from my kitchen. Possibility of mild contamination.
SM10.2_3 Reisho Spore Oil - a reishi spore oil, shipped from China and labelled as "essential oil", claimed at 28.8% triterpene content and sold through resellers worldwide under different labels. Unopened, as shipped by the vendor.
SM10.2_4 Complex capsule - Life Extension Reishi Complex, containing an alcohol extract of the fruiting body (claimed at 6% triterpenes) and broken spore extract. An unopened bottle, as shipped by the vendor.
A cover letter was attached, explaining the reports:
Dear Joshua,Attached please find a PDF containing the results of the 4 extracts we analysed. The first analysis is a HPLC run using a C18 reverse phase column with DAD UV detection. The data was analysed using our internal software, Comet and shows the comparative abundance of the ganoderic acids eluting at 4 to 6 min for each of the products. The capsules were clearly the most abundant. Then I have included the NovaC LCMS analysis (the eluting conditions were similar over a longer time frame. The traces of the Sistema and Kudzu root are shown, these traces are normalised to show all the peaks. For the capsules I have given you the data for each of the major peaks. The NovaC program predicts molecular weights based on the MS adduct ion patterns, for quite a few peaks there are multiple MWts suggests the peaks are mixtures but more likely than not there are multiple ions that fit the expected adduct patterns thus predicting a number of tentative MWts. Without standards it is not straightforward to identify one ganoderic acid from another. An interesting longer term puzzle.Sorry about the delay, it has been difficult to cobble together the time to mull over the data. I hope your investigations with Ganoderma go well and I wish good fortune with your studies.Regards, ErnHere are the HPLC results, with the 4 products overlaid:
We can see that the Life Extension product displays the most abundant level of ganoderic acids, followed by the raw reishi powder. The two spore products did not display significant amounts of all desired active ingredients. Let's take a look at these results individually, using the LCMS (numbered peaks are further detailed in the attached PDF):
SM10.2_1 Kudzu Root Extract - a reishi broken spore powder, shipped from China and labelled as "kudzu root extract", claimed at 20% triterpene content.- we can see 2 peaks, only (17,21)
SM10.2_2 Ganderma (Sistema) - a raw ganoderma powder, also originating from China and sold locally in Australia.- this looks like raw ganoderma lucidum and some spore content.
SM10.2_3 Reisho Spore Oil - a reishi spore oil, shipped from China and labelled as "essential oil", claimed at 28.8% triterpene content.-This sample performed so poorly on the HPLC, that a follow-up LCMS was not deemed worthy of further machine time.SM10.2_4 Complex capsule - Life Extension Reishi Complex-Confirming what has been observed and reported by people self-experimenting with various reishi products, this sample shows marked peaks where expected.
To summarise:A recent study carried out in partnership with USP showed that 74% of reishi products were mislabeled. From our limited testing, we could suggest that where products actually contain reishi, different parts of the fungi contain different metabolites.
"Spore" products contain only 2 major peaks and are missing all of the (presumed) ganoderic acids A-T observed in other samples between 4-6 minutes.
Additionally, it would appear that the reishi spore oil based product sample that Ern and team very kindly analysed contained only trace amounts of the peaks observed in the reishi spore powder sample from the same vendor.
Based on this data, the best profile of ganoderic acids may be obtained from an alcohol extract of the fruiting body, combined with reishi spore powder.
Alternatively, you may infer that approximately 3-5g of
genuine raw reishi powder could equate to 1 capsule of Life Extension Reishi Complex.
Thanks again to Ern and team for all their efforts!
Joshua
