Researchers in China have discovered a strain of Lion's Mane that is over 100x more potent than other cultivars. They revealed these findings in the study titled “Isolation and Evaluation of Erinacine A Contents in Mycelia of Hericium erinaceus Strains” published earlier this year in the journal Foods.
Their research investigated the purification of the pharmacologically active compound Erinacine A and how its concentration varied among seventeen different strains of Lion's Mane. This included ten wild strains, four commercially available cultivars, and three hybrids.
To obtain Erinacine A, the mycelium of these strains was cultivated in a liquid medium to produce pure mycelial biomass. This process for producing mycelial biomass is standard for producing fungal-derived compounds in research or clinical settings.
After 50 days of culturing in identical conditions, the mycelium was harvested, resulting in yields ranging between 6.00 g/L to 11.99 g/L, depending on the strain. While this is almost a two-fold difference between the lowest and highest-yielding strain, the variance between the Erinacine A content of these strains was more drastic.
Most cultivated strains had an Erinacine A content between 0.2 and 0.5 mg per gram. One outlier contained about 1.89 mg/gram.
While many of the wild strains had concentrations similar to the cultivars, one strain blew all others out of the water. The strain dubbed “HeG” had an Erinacine A content of about 42 mg/gram! This is more than 22x the concentration of the most potent cultivated strain and 180x that of the weakest strain.
Data from Liu, 2024.
Lentinan Levels In Shiitake Strains
Now, I know what many of you may be thinking. These results were clearly visible in the case of fungal mycelium, but are there significant differences in the potencies of mushroom fruiting bodies? While the researchers in the previous study did not test fruiting bodies, other studies have.
For example, in a 2011 study, researchers tested the lentinan content of Shiitake fruiting bodies from thirteen different strains. Lentinan is a type of beta-glucan and the most studied bioactive compound known from shiitake. They also tested how Lentinan content was affected by seven days of cold storage.
While the results weren’t as drastic as the other study, researchers observed that the content of fresh harvested Shiitake varied between 260 and 824 mg/100g fresh weight (fw). That’s still a three fold difference.
Interestingly, researchers also discovered that the decline of crude lentinan content after cold storage significantly differed in each strain. For example, the crude lentinan content of strain Mes02094 decreases minimally (260 to 226 mg/100 gr fw), while in strain Mes02007 the crude lentinan content decreased drastically during storage (824 to 229 mg/100g fw). This suggests that some strains may have the added benefits of retaining their bioactive compounds despite having a lower concentration.
With all this in mind, it’s essential to consider that the therapeutic benefits of medicinal mushrooms are never attributed to a single compound. Mushrooms are cocktails of compounds containing terpenes, sterols, polyphenols, polysaccharides, and other bioactives that offer health benefits. Just because a strain has a high value of one doesn’t mean it’s rich in all of them. It could be the opposite.
This is what was shown in another study from 2021that tested the bioactive compounds in seven wild and five cultivated King Oyster (Pleurotus eryngii) strains. In this study, researchers showed that wild strains tended to have higher beta-glucan contents, while cultivated strains tended to have higher phenol content and antibacterial activity.
Jacob Howard and His Cordyceps Experiment
The results of these trials should still have implications for anyone growing medicinal mushrooms or making supplements from them. If you’re putting all this effort into growing fruiting bodies or making products, you should know whether your strain is high in bioactive compounds.
Unfortunately, most cultures available on the western market have not been tested for their production of bioactive compounds. This is fair enough, considering that some compounds are difficult or expensive to test for, and few labs even offer these sorts of testing services.
Despite these challenges, this didn’t stop mushroom grower and community scientist Jacob Howard from The Mushroom Shop LLC. In this facebook post, he reveals the test results for bioactive compounds on four strains of Cordyceps militaris he obtained from Terrestrial Fungi. Of particular interest was Cordycepin, one of the most researched bioactive compounds from this species.
Two strains, Peachy and Mound, had cordycepin levels of about 2.6 mg/gram. Another strain, Hades, was slightly richer in cordycepin with 3.667 mg/gram. Surprisingly, the Albino strain had a whopping 6.449 mg/gram, which is about 1.8 times the potency of Hades.
While this suggests a high medicinal potential from the Albino strain, it’s interesting to note that Howard also tested other known bioactive compounds found in Cordyceps. Compared to the Mound strain, the Albino strain has lower levels of all the other compounds that could be detected. The mound strain also had a significant quantity of 2’-deoxyadenosine, which was not found in other samples.
Conclusion
While mushroom cultivators measure yield in terms of dry weight, perhaps this isn’t enough when cultivating medicinal mushrooms. In this case, the concentration of bioactive compounds should also be considered to judge the therapeutic potential of a harvest. It could be more beneficial to cultivate strains that produce high quantities of bioactive compounds, even if they have a lower harvest weight.
Likewise, breeders shouldn’t be solely selecting strains that are aesthetically pleasing or give significant flushes. They should be at the forefront of testing their strains and selecting those with high concentrations of bioactive compounds. This way, growers can attain strains from a trusted breeder to produce more potent and effective products.
Last but not least, it should be mentioned that it is not only strains that influence the concentration of compounds in a mushroom. Their substrate and growth conditions can also be significant factors in this equation. For example, it is commonly believed that log-grown mushrooms tend to be more medicinal than those grown on agricultural waste. We’ll save that for a future article though! Happy growing :)
