Chaga

Chaga mushrooms grow in the forests of Northern Siberia, Northern Canada, Northern Japan and the Northeastern United States. Chaga is highly prized in Russian herbalism, with the modern clinical research validating many of the health benefits described in the Russian herbal sources.

Chaga is unique among medicinal mushrooms and may be one of the most important anti-aging supplements yet discovered*.

Like all medicinal mushrooms Chaga contains the beta glucan rich polysaccharides that give medicinal mushroom extracts their potent immune supporting properties.* However, Chaga also has other active compounds, primarily betulinic acids, that give Chaga extracts powerful anti-oxidant properties*.

Chaga has an extremely high ORAC score (measurement of antioxidant properties), similar to that of blueberry extracts. Chaga also has melanin compounds that may nourish the skin and hair.*

Chaga is a mushroom that must be wild crafted.  Only those mushrooms harvested from living birch trees will have the full compliment of active compounds Chaga is famous for.

Our Chaga extract is the only Chaga supplement available in North America that lists guaranteed levels of active compounds on the label.*

The scientific name for Chaga is Inonotus obliquus.  Chaga is unique among medicinal mushrooms.  In addition to its potent immune stimulating properties Chaga has an extremely high value as an antioxidant.*  This assessment was done on the MushroomScience Chaga extract by Brunswick Labs, performing a test that assigns supplements an “ORAC” score as a way to compare antioxidant properties between different supplements.

The ORAC value of the MushroomScience Chaga extract was higher than green or black tea extracts and was similar to that of blueberry extracts.

The anti-oxidant properties are attributed to an active compound unique to Chaga fruit bodies, a triterpene called betulinic acid.*  The Wikipedia entry for betulinic acid contains interesting information about this active compound.

Chaga extracts also contain melanin compounds that may help to nourish the skin and hair, and may also protect the skin and hair from the damage that comes from aging and excessive exposure to the sun.  Given this broad range of diverse health benefits Chaga is one of the most useful mushroom extracts for general immune support.*

CULTIVATION or WILD HARVEST ?

Chaga is a mushroom that must be wild crafted (harvested in the wild). Only those mushrooms harvested from living birch trees will have the full compliment of active compounds Chaga is famous for.  Chaga absorbs one of these active compounds, the betulinic acid, from the bark of the Birch tree that serves as its host.

MushroomScience contracts with a company that harvests Chaga mushrooms from an extremely large geographical area so as not to over harvest any one particular area.

Chaga grows in the forests of Northern Siberia, Northern Japan, Northern Canada and the Northeastern United States.  Although there is no recorded use of Chaga in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chaga is highly prized in Russian herbalism, with the modern clinical research validating many of the health benefits described in the Russian herbal sources.*

MushroomScience contracts with a company that harvests Chaga mushrooms from an extremely large geographical area so as not to over harvest any one particular area.

The famous Russian author and scientist Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote about Chaga.  The people in the area of Russia where he lived had a custom of making Chaga into a tea, and he commented that very few people in the area suffered from any serious health problems, a fact he attributed to their daily the use of Chaga tea.*