Meet The Mushrooms

When it comes to medicinal mushroom supplements, you’ll often hear the terms fruiting body and mycelium.
Fruiting body refers to the stem, cap and gills of the mushroom that visibly grows above ground. The term mycelium refers to the root-like system of the organism that grows below ground. In today's supplement world many people are are asking the question:
Which is better? Let us try and explain.
In the wild, mushrooms are decomposers and grow on substrates such as trees, stumps, and soil. Each variety of mushroom prefers a specific substrate, as nutrients in these substrates provide the mushroom with vital molecules needed to fully develop each mushroom’s medicinal properties. These molecules are developed for various reasons such as trading with other plants around them or defending themselves from competitors. When the mycelium has enough of the correct nutrients, and the conditions are just right, it uses its energy to grow its reproductive fruit, the mushroom! Some believe that the organism concentrates its medicinal compounds into this fruiting body, or mushroom. But does that mean that the mycelium offers no benefits? Not exactly...
Many studies suggest that the fruiting body and the Mycelium both offer an array of varying benefits for the consumer. In many ancient cultures the fruiting body was traditionally used for many remedies that are still used today. However there are several supplement companies that use the mycelium in their capsules and other supplements.
At Trilogy Fungi we chose to use strictly the fruiting body for our extracts at this time. Part of the reason we made this decision is because when mushrooms are cultivated away from the wild, their natural forest substrates are often replaced with a variation of grain. When cultivating the mycelium it is impossible to separate the mycelium from the grain thus leaving behind some traces of the substrate in the product.

We wanted to provide a pure product that could be used by as many people as possible, even our grain free friends. That being said, we look forward to incorporating mycelium into our tinctures as soon as we perfect our grain free mycelium extraction method. This will only maximize the results of our already amazing product! Check out our testimonials to see how The Trilogy Pack has already helped so many others like yourself. The best extractions are full spectrum, which means that the entire spectrum of bioactive compounds are present. This is also known as a dual extraction. First, a water extraction utilizes a process where the fruiting body is placed in hot water. This process breaks down a substance called chitin in the cell walls. Humans lack the enzyme to break down chitin, but hot water can! The water extracts the most important bioactive components of the mushroom, a polysaccharide called beta‐glucans. Meanwhile, alcohol extracts non-water‐soluble compounds such as triterpenes.
Mushrooms are rich in macro and micronutrients, antioxidants, amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, fatty acids, fiber, and minerals. In fact, the nutritional value of edible mushrooms is astounding, containing 19‐35% protein (on a dry weight basis) , nearly as much as soybeans (39.1%) and milk (25.2%). Additionally, many varieties of mushrooms contain all nine essential amino acids (meaning humans cannot create them, rather we must consume them in our diet).
Of course, each variety of mushroom has their own nutritive benefits. The following list is not specific, but generalized list of nutrients/ nutraceuticals:

Terpenoids
Terpenoids are among the most potent nutraceuticals in mushrooms
with at least 5 monoterpenes, 70 sesquiterpenes, 44 diterpenes, and 166 triterpenes having been discovered and analyzed for their many profound beneficial properties.
Vitamins
- B-6
- B-12
- Thiamine B-1
- Folate B-9
- Riboflavin B-2
- Niacin B-3
- Pantothenic Acid B-5
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin C
Minerals
- Iron
- Calcium
- Potassium
- Copper
- Selenium
- Sodium
- Magnesium
- Phosphorus
- Zinc
Anti Oxidants
Ergothioneine
Glutathione
Essential Nutrients
Beta Glucans and other Polysaccharides
Amino Acids
Mushrooms contain all 9 Essential Amino Acids (EAA’s).
They also have a High Branch Chain Amino Acid (BCAA) composition,
which is commonly found in animals and not in plants.