Careful drying, pulverization and extraction secure the effectiveness of our medicinal mushroom products
Careful processing is critical to ensuring the premium quality, i.e. efficacy, of a medicinal mushroom powder or extract.
With decades of experience and state-of-the-art technology, we’ve perfected the drying, pulverizing and extraction processes. Product quality is constantly monitored through laboratory testing to ensure that our customers receive only the purest and most effective medicinal mushroom raw materials.
Sustainable drying process ensures nothing is lost
The mushrooms are analyzed directly after harvesting by the accredited German laboratory group Agrolab for over 250 parameters such as heavy metals, radioactive and microbial contaminants. This raw material is not dried until it has been deemed uncontaminated.
In order to preserve the important polysaccharides, the drying is done differently depending on the mushroom type and their consistency.
We use either sun drying or a milder heat in traditional drying plants for more sensitive mushrooms.
The wooden substrates of the mushrooms are used as fuel in the drying plants and the ash is spread on the fields as fertilizer. As sustainability in all our operations is important to us, we strive to reprocess and recycle as much of our cultivation materials as possible.
The mushrooms are pulverized using the shellbroken method for optimal potency
After drying, the mushroom fruiting bodies are crushed and either packaged for transport to be extracted or ground into the finest powder using the shellbroken method.
As the name suggest, the shellbroken method breaks down every single cell of the mushroom. The resulting powder has a particle size of less than 0.125 mm. Such a fine powder allows the human body to optimally absorb all the important ingredients.
We vary the pulverization process depending on the mushroom type. For example, some mushrooms require several grinding times to achieve the desired fine powder.
After that the powder is packaged and shipped to our facilities in Austria for final processing and testing.
Gentle extraction ensures the highest bioavailability of valuable ingredients
Extraction allows the valuable polysaccharides and beta-glucans to be extracted from the mushrooms in a standardized way, making them bioavailable to the human metabolism.
The process is done according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), corresponding to the latest technical developments. A great deal of know-how is required as different mushroom species requires different extraction times and temperature.
During extraction, the coarse mushroom powder is repeatedly heated for several hours without boiling. This will gradually dissolve the chitin and protein bonds surrounding the polysaccharide in the mushroom’s cells. The polysaccharide content can be controlled by the number of repetitions of this process.
The soluble and insoluble parts of the coarse powder are then separated and only the soluble parts are gently dried to extract.
Follow the the journey of our mushrooms
When ready, the mushroom powders and extracts are shipped to our production facilities in Austria for a second analysis and processing before being shipped to our customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below you can find answers to some of the most popular questions about our pulverization and extraction methods. If you can’t find the answer to your question below, you can take a look at all our FAQs or give us a call or send us an email.
Do other ingredients in the mushrooms suffer from the extraction process?
Small amounts of vitamins and amino acids are lost during extraction. But, since the polysaccharide content is the most important factor in extracts, this loss plays a minor role.
However, it also shows why both dosage forms, extracts and powders, have their place and why it sometimes makes sense to use them in combination.
What are polysaccharides?
Polysaccharides, which include beta-glucans, are compounds composed of multiple glucose molecules and are found in the cell walls of mushrooms. The potential health benefits of mushrooms can be largely attributed to polysaccharides and beta-glucans in particular.