Medicinal Mushroom Traditions of the East
Medicinal mushrooms have been used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for thousands of years (estimates vary from 3-7,000 years). The oldest official list of 365 medicinal substances, Shennong Bencao Jing, contains the materia medica of TCM, dating from the 29th century BC. The list contains several mushroom species used for medicinal purposes; especially revered was the famous ganoderma mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum, Chinese: lingzhi, Japanese: reishi or mannentake).
