The Brain-Boosting Properties of Lion’s Mane Mushroom & Making a Medicinal Mushroom Double Extract
Fresh Lion’s Mane mushroom
Lion’s Mane Mushroom is an herb I’ve been enjoying so much over the past months. It’s a powerful nootropic, provides mood support, has a special talent for helping heal damaged nerves, and possesses the famous beta-glucan polysaccharides that make medicinal mushrooms such potent immunomodulators. Over the winter we’ve been learning a ton about herbal nootropics in our Viriditas Membership Community and I wanted to share a but of what we’ve been covering! But first…what’s a nootropic you might ask?
What’s a Nootropic?
Nootropic is an herbal action used to describe brain-boosting, mood enhancing herbs. I truly consider them medicine for our times. The name nootropic is comprised of two Greek words, nöos, meaning ‘thinking,’ and tropein, which means ‘to guide’
The Romanian psychologist and chemist Dr. Corneliu Giurgea was one of the first scientists who researched nootropics and was the first person to bring them forward in research and in the scientific community in the early 1970’s
According to his definition, a true nootropic may:
– Improve learning and short-term memory retention
– Increase resilience to stress hormones and trauma
– Protect brain cells and improve brain bioactivity
– Promote intercellular communication
Dr. Giurgea developed six key criteria to qualify substances as true nootropics.
1. Enhancement of memory and learning
2. Improved cognition under stress
3. Protection of brain cells (neuroprotective)
4. Facilitation of cell-to-cell communication
5. Backed by human research demonstrating brain bioactivity
6. Absence of usual pharmacological effects of psychotropic drugs
Today not all herbal nootropics fit this exact definition and in herbalism we use the term to describe herbs that enhance mental focus, cognition, memory, learning, mood, and are neuroprotective. Many, but not all, are adaptogens and they each tend to have their own unique mechanism of actions, when we know it. In my experience in my herbal practice, these are herbs that need to be taken consistently to feel the effects and I’ve seen the effect stop when people stop taking them. They tend to be tonic herbs for the nervous system, safe for daily use, and some are even food as medicine plants or fungi, such as Lion’s Mane.
Dried Lion’s Mane mushroom
Lion’s Mane Mushroom Medicine
Common Name: Lion’s Mane, Hou tou gu, Yamabushitake
Latin Name: Hericium erinaceus syn. Hydnum erinaceum
A note on taxonomy: There is lots of genetic taxonomic confusion among the different species and many mycologists consider them interchangable. Coral Tooth (Hericium coralloides), Comb Tooth Cap (Hericium ramosum), and Bear’s Head Tooth Mushroom (Hericium americanum) are all closely related to Lion’s Mane and also contain the active constituent in Lion’s Mane mushroom, erinacine, and likely have similar medicinal use.
Energetics: sweet, neutral to moist
Habitat + range: H. erinaceus is found throughout the entire temperate band of the globe. Grows on dead and dying conifers and hardwoods. Hericium americanum is found in North America east of the Great Plains and grows on dead and dying trees, primarily hardwoods but also occasionally conifers. Hericium coralloides is distributed across the entire temperate band of the globe, mostly in mature and old-growth forests, on dead trees and fallen logs
Herbal actions: anti-convulsant, anti-fungal, immunomodulator, immune stimulant, neuroprotective, nerve tonic, nootropic, styptic
Specific indications: Specific for nervous system/cognitive issues but also benefits the immune and digestive systems. Brain tonic/nootropic for foggy thinking, poor memory and focus, dementia, poor cognitive function. Helpful for mood support and depression. Promotes feeling of calm focus. Paul Stametes calls it “brain food that increases intellect and nourishes the nervous system.”
Hericium coralloides (left) and Hericium americanum (right)
A study in Japan of patients in a rehabilitation center gave participants (elderly folks with cerebrovascular disease, degenerative orthopedic disease, parkinsons, spino-cerebellar degeneration, diabetic neuropathy, spinal cord injury, or disuse syndrome) 5 grams of Lion’s Mane mushroom in their soup daily for 6 months- after 6 month 6 out of 7 participants showed improvement in perceptual capacities and all 7 had improvement in their Functional Independence measure. Another human study on 29 men and woman ages 50-80 with mild cognitive problems were given 1 gram of dried fruiting body 3x/day and they showed significant improvement at 8, 12, and 16 weeks but the effects didn’t last beyond 4 weeks after being discontinued. There is in vitro evidence that shows it has a myelin-generating effect on nerve and cerebellar glia cells (the myelin sheath is a sleeve of fatty tissue that protects your nerve cells and allows electrical impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently along the nerve cells). Also supportive for low immunity, a disregulated immune system, and cancer.
The active constituents for the neuroprotective and nerve tonic qualities are hericenones and erinacines, which have been shown to be largely alcohol soluble. The immunomodulating properties come primarily from water-soluble polysaccharides, called beta-glucans.
Traditionally used in Chinese medicine for digestion, gastric ulcers, and general debility. Powdered mushroom stops bleeding when used topically
Dosage + preparation: Double extract- 2-4ml/day. Decoction- 2 cups/day. Dried powder (cooked into soups, broths)- 5 grams/day. Freely in food.
In the kitchen: delicious, buttery flavor with a consistency often compared to seafood so often used in recipes instead of shellfish, but it is so versatile and shouldn’t be limited only to this! Wonderful on its own and adds a rich flavor to sauces
Making a Medicinal Mushroom Double Extract
Mushroom double extracts are made in two parts. Step one is making a tincture in high proof alcohol- 95% alcohol! Step two involves straining the tincture and keeping the marc (the plant material used for the tincture), the Lion's Mane in this case, and making a strong decoction with it. Next, you strain the decoction and preserve it with the tincture so the final alcohol content is about 30%, which is shelf-stable.
Lion’s Mane tincture, waiting to be turned into a double extract
The intention behind mushroom double extracts is to create a full-spectrum, shelf-stable, effective extract and also preserve one of the most active constituents in medicinal mushrooms, Beta glucans, which are a water soluble polysaccharide. If you see a mushroom tincture for sale that doesn't follow this extraction process I would avoid it as it's missing much of the medicine.
For this batch I used dried Lion's Mane from Forest Mushrooms. And another source that's wonderful and local to western Massachusetts is Mycoterra.
Step 1: Tincture the mushrooms at 1:4 (dried) or 1:2 (fresh) in 95% alcohol. You an use the weight: volume method of making tinctures or choose to use the folk method for making tinctures.
Step 2: Steep 4 weeks, shaking often if possible, strain and reserve the marc (the strained mushrooms).
Step 3: Make a 1: 5 decoction of the marc, meaning use 1 part mushroom: 5 parts of water, by volume (for example if you have 1 cup of the marc, simmer in 5 cups of water)
Step 4: Make a double decoction by cooking the water down to ½ of its original volume, slowly simmering on low heat. Ideally this should take hours and at minimum at least ½ hour.
Step 5: Combine the decoction and tincture using 30% of the tincture and 70% of the decoction so you have a final extract that is about 30% alcohol, which will make the extract shelf stable! If you have extra decoction you can freeze it for future use and if you have extra tincture you can save it for a future batch.
Step 6: Dosage for most medicinal mushrooms is between 2-4 ml/day
References & Resources
The Fungal Pharmacy
By Robert Rogers, RH (AHG)
Medicinal Mushrooms: The Essential Guide
By Christopher Hobbs
The Acute and Chronic Effects of Lion's Mane Mushroom Supplementation on Cognitive Function, Stress and Mood in Young Adults: A Double-Blind, Parallel Groups, Pilot Study
Nutrients. 2023 Nov 20;15(22):4842. doi: 10.3390/nu15224842.
By Sarah Docherty, Faye L Doughty, Ellen F Smith
Therapeutic Potential of Hericium erinaceus for Depressive Disorder
Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Jan; 21(1): 163. Published online 2019 Dec 25. doi: 10.3390/ijms21010163
By Pit Shan Chong, Man-Lung Fung, Kah Hui Wong, and Lee Wei Lim
