Known as the “king of mushrooms,” reishi has been a staple of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for centuries. It is a rare fungus that grows at the foot of deciduous trees and contains many beneficial compounds. They are linked with health benefits such as:
- Boosting the immune system
- Reducing fatigue
- Lowering heart disease risk
- Decreasing the risk of diabetes
- Lowering blood pressure and blood sugar levels
It has taken some time for the West to catch up, but reishi is finally getting the attention it deserves. So much so that there has been an explosion in the number of reishi sellers. Unfortunately, too many brands are out for a quick buck with little interest in providing a good product.
This is why we have created this guide to the best reishi mushroom supplements. It includes the best pills, powdered reishi, sleep aids, and brands while crowning a winner of the best overall extract. It concludes by outlining our ranking criteria.
Best Reishi Mushroom Pills
At present, reishi mushroom capsules are the favored form of consumption. The mushroom has an earthy and bitter taste that isn’t particularly pleasant! However, by placing the extract in a cellulose casing, manufacturers helped make reishi consumption convenient. With a pre-determined amount of reishi in each serving, you know exactly how much you’re taking.
While there are plenty of excellent options, there was one brand that we feel sells the best reishi capsules.
Swanson
Swanson has you covered if you’re looking to avoid swallowing too many capsules. It sells a 60-count container with 600mg of reishi extract (fruiting body and mycelium) in each. Therefore, consuming two gives you 1,200mg of the mushroom each day, which is usually enough for most users. Also, these pills contain a significant level of beta-glucans, which are linked to many immune system benefits.
Real Mushrooms
This brand’s Reishi 415 pills come from 100% organic reishi mushrooms. Choose between a 90-count and 200-count container, with each capsule containing 500mg of reishi. Real Mushrooms uses hot water and alcohol extraction and promises that there is no grain, mycelium, or added starch. Furthermore, its pills contain a minimum of 4% triterpenes and 15% beta-glucans.
Om Mushrooms
As one of the best-known and respected medicinal mushrooms brands, it is no surprise to see Om Mushrooms featured in this section. Each pill it sells contains 666.66mg of organic reishi, consisting of mycelial biomass and fruit body. The only other ingredients are organic myceliated oats and vegetable cellulose for the casing.
WAYOFLEAF’S CHOICE – Om Mushrooms
Although the other brands featured in this list sell excellent mushroom pills, they can’t quite match Om Mushrooms for overall quality or brand reputation. Each 90-count container should last about a month as the company recommends taking three capsules a day to get your 2000mg daily reishi dose.
Best Powdered Reishi Mushroom
If you don’t mind the taste, reishi mushroom extract has plenty of attributes. For one thing, it is versatile. You can add it to food and drink or create innovative recipes! While using the powdered form is more time-consuming, you’ll find that it’s usually significantly cheaper than other options.
Let’s find out the brands known for selling outstanding reishi mushroom powder before choosing the #1.
Medicinal Foods
This brand’s extract is one of the industry leaders because it contains over 95% pure mushroom. It contains some mycelium, primordia, and spore but is clear about it on the list of ingredients. It is third-party tested for potency and contains no fillers. Medicinal Foods packs 100 grams of full-spectrum reishi mushroom powder into each package and recommends a serving size of one gram.
Real Mushrooms
The reishi extract sold by Real Mushrooms is of the highest quality. Each package offers 45 grams of reishi with over 15% beta-glucans and more than 4% triterpenes. Independent lab reports confirm that this product has an extremely high level of ganoderic acid, and it is USDA-certified organic. About the only downside is the price, though one could argue that you get what you pay for.
FreshCap
FreshCap is another brand with a stellar reputation, and it offers a high-quality reishi extract. It contains 27% beta-glucan and 1.4% triterpene, and the extract consists of fruiting body reishi. With 60 grams per package for an excellent price, this is one of the best options. FreshCap also tests its mushrooms for pesticides, heavy metals, gluten, and microbial contamination.
WAYOFLEAF’S CHOICE – FreshCap
While high-quality mushroom extract doesn’t necessarily need to consist solely of fruiting bodies, it should contain significant beta-glucans and triterpenes. FreshCap’s reishi supplement has among the highest levels of both compounds. Incidentally, if you subscribe for regular delivery, you can save 20% on the purchase price.
Best Reishi Supplements for Aiding Sleep
Reishi mushrooms contain a variety of compounds that help with sleep. These include:
- Beta-glucans (polysaccharides)
- Triterpenoids
- Ergosterol
- Polyphenols
- Ergothioneine
- Glutathione
In general, mushrooms such as reishi possess adaptogenic properties that help balance the body and mind, relieving stress.
Indeed, a study published in Chinese Medicine in 2018 found that adaptogens could act as sleep aids.
A study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology in 2012 discovered that reishi could help improve sleep. Test subjects consumed a dose of 80 mg/kg for three days and enjoyed increased total sleep time and non-REM sleep.
Although the following products could help, don’t assume they’ll act as magic sleeping potions. It is still important to avoid caffeine in the hours before bedtime while also minimizing electronics usage at least 30 minutes before sleep.
Four Sigmatic Reishi Elixir
According to Four Sigmatic, its elixir is a nourishing way to enjoy a good night’s sleep, and it “feels like a dream.” These are bold claims, but its loyal customers have no complaints. Each box contains 20 servings with 1500mg of reishi apiece, along with field mint, tulsi, and rosehips.
Plant People NightLight Mushroom Cacao Mix
This innovative product from Plant People is a relaxing mixture of l-theanine, magnesium, and mushrooms designed to help you drift peacefully off to sleep. Each sachet contains 500mg of a mushroom fruiting body mix, consisting of reishi, shiitake, chaga, turkey tail, and maitake.
Nusapure Reishi Mushroom Capsules
The Nusapure brand offers a 200-count container and recommends a serving size of two capsules. It is a 4:1 extract with the equivalent of 1800mg of reishi mushroom powder per pill. This is another highly regarded brand, so consider trying this product if you need help sleeping.
WAYOFLEAF’S CHOICE – Plant People
Ultimately, we feel that Plant People’s Cacao Mix is the best option for anyone seeking better sleep. The mushroom blend can help support relaxation and recovery at night. L-theanine can help combat insomnia, whereas magnesium is known for supporting hundreds of biochemical reactions in the body.
Best Reishi Mushroom Extract Overall
There are plenty of great reishi mushroom extracts, and sadly, quite a few bad ones! This is why it is important to research the brands you’re interested in before buying anything. Later, we look into three reputable brands selling reishi mushroom products that we feel you can trust.
Now though, let’s look into what we believe are the three best reishi mushroom extracts on the market.
Anthony’s Organic Reishi Mushroom Extract
Anthony’s Goods sells a wide variety of organic and natural foods at affordable prices. It only offers one reishi mushroom product, but there’s no question that the quality makes up for the lack of quantity!
Its Red Reishi Mushroom Powder is a 4:1 extract with a minimum beta-glucans content of 30%. It is water extracted and extremely easy to digest. There is no filler content in a fantastic product that’s vegan-friendly, non-GMO, and packed in the United States. Each package contains about 170 grams of powdered reishi, and Anthony’s Goods says you should brew it as tea.
Om Mushrooms – Reishi Organic Mushroom Powder
Om Mushrooms offers its powdered extract in three sizes: 100 grams, 200 grams, and 500 grams. If you choose the latter and consume up to two grams of reishi each day, you have enough extract to last you for approximately eight months! Indeed, it works out at about $11 a month, a small price to pay for the benefits of reishi.
Like the brand’s capsules, the extract contains a certified organic mushroom powder blend consisting of fruit body and mycelial biomass. Most people use it in the evening to help them sleep, but you might also find it useful to help manage everyday stresses. Sprinkle it on food, or create delicious recipes with this versatile product.
Terrasoul Superfoods Red Reishi Mushroom Powder
This organic powdered red reishi is similar to what’s sold by Anthony’s Goods. It is made from a 4:1 extract and contains at least 20% polysaccharides. Terrasoul mills the powder from water-extracted fruiting mushroom body, and its reishi is cultivated on hardwood logs. Furthermore, the company thoroughly lab tests its mushrooms for heavy metals and hundreds of chemicals.
Few reishi extracts on the market are purer than what Terrasoul Superfoods offers. There are two sizes, 5.5oz and 1-lb; the latter provides exceptional value for money.
WAYOFLEAF’S CHOICE – Om Mushrooms Reishi Organic Mushroom Powder
Picking a winner in this category was genuinely challenging because, in reality, you can rest assured that all three products are of an exceptional standard. However, we leaned towards Om Mushrooms because it is a specialist in the field, compared to the other two brands which are involved in the wider health foods industry.
Best Reishi Mushroom Supplement Brands
Overall, we feel that the following brands represent the best of what’s available in the reishi mushroom supplement industry.
Om Mushrooms
Founded by Steve Farrar and Sandra Carter, Om Mushrooms remains one of the top-rated brands in the industry. Farrar is a mycologist with 30+ years of growing mushrooms, so it’s fair to say he knows a thing or two! Om cultivates 11 mushroom species at its Californian facility.
As such an established name in the industry, it’s no surprise that Om Mushrooms also offers one of the best product ranges. Its reishi section alone consists of the following:
- Organic mushroom powder
- Immune defense mushroom capsules
- Gently Zen mushroom capsules
- Mushroom coffee latte blend
- Morning energy blend
Ultimately, if you’re interested in reishi mushrooms but aren’t sure what product to buy, visit Om Mushrooms and be spoiled for choice.
Real Mushrooms
Although this brand can’t match Om Mushrooms for quantity, one could argue that it at least equals Om in terms of quality. Real Mushrooms is a family-owned business founded by Jeff Chilton and his son, Skye. Jeff is also the founder of Nammex, a huge supplier of mushroom extract ingredients to supplement companies.
Unlike many low-grade rivals, Real Mushrooms uses real mushrooms in all products. It strictly uses the cap of the reishi mushroom for extraction. Its Reishi 415 product is made from Ganoderma lingzhi, better known as red reishi. With high levels of beta-glucans and triterpenes, it is one of the best reishi products.
Overall, Real Mushrooms is a brand that stands by the quality of its products, which few competitors can match.
Four Sigmatic
This brand started in Finland and took its name from a term for the world’s 100 most studied nutrient-dense foods. Every “sigma” represents how far away a food is from average when plotting out nutrition. Highly processed foods are between -1 and -2 sigmas, whereas health foods are usually 2-3. However, foods with four sigmas are relatively rare and deemed the healthiest you can find.
The founders of Four Sigmatic say their grandparents created a coffee replacement out of chaga mushrooms during World War II. It is a fun-loving brand that offers a variety of extremely nutritious health foods, including reishi supplements.
Besides the elixir featured above, Four Sigmatic also sells mushroom cacao with reishi and a chai latte with reishi and turkey tail. If you’re seeking a slightly different slant on reishi or other mushrooms, give this brand a try.
WAYOFLEAF’S CHOICE – Om Mushrooms
This is likely not a shocking conclusion, given that Om Mushrooms has already been featured twice in the piece. Its consistent presence in this article is a clear sign of the brand’s immense quality. If you’re seeking medicinal mushrooms, very few brands come close to Om Mushrooms for product standard and variety. This company has you covered whether you want powder, pills, blends, or drinks.
What Ranking Factors Did We Use?
Before considering the best reishi mushroom supplements, we began by determining the ranking factors we wanted to use. Doing so enabled us to dig even deeper into each brand to ensure they met our exacting standards. Here’s an overview of five of the most important ranking factors we used when reviewing each brand and product.
1 – Ingredients
This is a straightforward inclusion because, believe it or not, plenty of reishi mushroom supplements don’t contain mushrooms! Instead, they contain mycelium, a root-like structure of a fungus. All mushrooms come from mycelia but not all mycelia fruit mushrooms.
Some products claim they contain mushrooms, but in reality, they contain mycelium. Mycelium is less potent than actual mushrooms, better known as fruiting bodies. Some brands combine different parts of the mushroom, and if they are honest about it, that’s perfectly fine. If you’re happy with it (and the product is inexpensive), you might decide to proceed with a purchase.
We also check to ensure each product doesn’t contain needless fillers, which add nothing to the product’s efficacy.
Finally, the best products have significant levels of beta-glucans and triterpenoids. These compounds are linked with reduced heart disease and diabetes risk and are among the most important nutrients in reishi mushrooms.
2 – Value for Money
How much “bang for your buck” do you get? When it comes to capsules, you need to know how much reishi is in each one. Generally, anything above 500mg per pill is sufficient, although we did include a product with less due to its quality.
As far as mushroom extract goes, it is all about the number of servings in a container and how much it costs. Or is it?
While we took price into account, we also believe that value involves getting what you pay for. Suspiciously cheap reishi mushroom extracts are best avoided as growing, sourcing, and packaging high-quality reishi is costly. As a result, we’re happy to include slightly expensive products if we feel they’re worth the price.
3 – Testing
There’s a suggestion that you should only ever buy American-grown extracts because Chinese versions are low quality. We can sum it up like this: Some of the world’s best reishi extracts are grown in China, as are some of the worst! Also, about 85% of the world’s mushrooms are produced in China!
As long as mushrooms are cultivated in the mountains and away from industrial pollution, there’s a chance they are safe to consume (though not a guarantee).
What’s even more important than location is the quality of testing. Brands that provide detailed analysis of their products will always rank higher than those that don’t. Many of the products we’ve included above are third-party tested to prove they don’t contain pesticides, heavy metals, or other harmful chemicals.
4 – Production & Extraction
Not every brand produces mushroom extracts the same way. One of the best methods involves cultivating them on sawdust from local sawmills. Mushrooms are excellent at recycling waste materials, and by growing them on sawdust, you make the most of a material that would otherwise be thrown away.
However, top brands tend to grow reishi on hardwood logs in the ground. Check the company website to see if it provides additional information on its growing techniques.
There are different ways to extract mushrooms, and it often depends on the type of mushroom. For example, many brands use alcohol extraction for reishi and hot water extraction from lion’s mane.
5 – Brand Reputation
If you can’t find much information about a brand, it is probably best to avoid making a purchase. There are dozens of reputable reishi mushroom sellers but hundreds of dubious ones.
Apart from a lack of information about the company, cheap-looking websites, vague, generic (sometimes incorrect) data about reishi, and a lack of customer reviews are all red flags. We also avoid including brands that make wild claims about the efficacy of their product and give extra points for offering a money-back guarantee.
Final Verdict on the Best Reishi Mushroom Supplements on the Market Right Now
We have included a dozen high-quality reishi products and three brands we feel are among the best in the industry. Overall, Om Mushrooms is the clear winner as the top reishi seller, although it faces stiff competition.
Hopefully, you can use this information to find the best reishi supplement for your needs quickly. Please be wary of scam companies if you decide to look beyond what we’ve included in this guide. While some will merely rip you off with poor quality products, others may include harmful ingredients, accidentally or otherwise.
Don’t risk buying something simply because it’s cheap, as you’ll pay a lot more for it. Premium grade reishi can be expensive, but most long-time users agree that the extra cost is worth it. After all, high-quality reishi could provide benefits such as increasing memory, detoxifying the body, and strengthening heart function.
If you want to learn more about reishi mushrooms or fancy cultivating them at home, check out the following article:
