What are mushroom extracts?

Although certain mushrooms have been used since pre-history, the ability to identify beneficial properties and then extract the active ingredient started with the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. The fungus with probably the longest record of use, Ganoderma lucidum (Red Reishi), is known in Chinese as líng zhī ("spirit plant"), and in Japanese as mannentake ("10,000 year mushroom"). In ancient Japan, Grifola frondosa (Maitake) was worth its weight in silver. Inonotus obliquus (Chaga) was used in Russia as early as the 16th century.