Medicinal mushrooms have been used by healers for thousands of years.

Perhaps the earliest record of a human carrying and using mushrooms can be found in the story of Oetzi, or the “Iceman”. He was found by hikers in 1991, frozen high in the Italian Alps.

Oetzi died over 5,300 years ago.

Among other things, he was carrying two different types of mushroom. One was a tinder fungus, used for starting fires. The other was the birch polypore mushroom, which he would almost certainly have carried for its medicinal properties.

On the other side of the Atlantic, mushroom stone sculptures tell us that fungi also played a role in Meso-American culture over 2,000 years ago.

And we know the Chinese have revered mushrooms in their culture and practice of medicine for just as long. In the Chinese city of Nantong there is an entire museum devoted to the history and use of Reishi mushrooms. A museum of its own for just one mushroom species!

Today we also see a deep respect for the medicinal properties of fungi in other parts of Asia, and in Russia and Europe.

In both France and Switzerland, pharmacists are required to learn mushroom identification as part of their jobs.

Strangely, it’s primarily in North America that mushrooms have been relegated to adorning the tops of pizzas.

Which is odd when you look at how much western medicine relies on fungi.

Some of the West’s most important medicines are derived from fungi.

Medicines like the antibiotic, penicillin.

Or the cephalosporin group of antibiotics.

Other drugs that come from fungi include cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant drug, statins for lowering cholesterol, and the drug Taxol, originally extracted from the fungi that live on yew trees.

In other words, mainstream pharmaceutical companies have been tapping into the medicinal power of fungi for decades.

But as a culture, Western Europeans and North Americans are strangely mycophobic.

And yes, that’s a “thing”. Mycophobia is the fear of mushrooms.

Fortunately, little by little, people are coming to better understand the medicinal qualities of mushrooms.

This gradual acceptance of mushrooms has piggy-backed on the growing demand for alternative health products overall.

And then there are Magic Mushrooms. 

If you doubt that mushrooms can pack a pharmaceutical punch, there are over 200 species of fungus that contain the hallucinogenic compound, psilocybin.

The story of magic mushrooms is a fascinating one. It’s only now that their potential to treat anxiety and severe depression is being fully recognized and accepted in the West.

We have a whole page about magic mushrooms.

Active compounds in mushrooms deliver a range of powerful health benefits.

Whether you’re eating them as part of your diet, or taking mushroom supplements in the form of powders or tinctures, many mushrooms contain compounds that support your health.

Beta-glucans support immunity, and are considered to be antibiotic and antiviral.

Triterpenoids are considered to be liver protective, lipid lowering, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and inhibit histamine release.

Ergosterol has antitumor and antioxidant properties, and is a precursor to Vitamin D2.

Statins, which, in high doses, have the ability to lower cholesterol.

And antioxidants, which protect our bodies from the ravages of free radicals.

Here are some of the most popular medicinal mushrooms you’ll want to know about.

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