Mushrooms, long revered for their nutritional and medicinal properties, contain a wealth of bioactive compounds that contribute to their health benefits. Among these compounds, beta-glucans stand out as a crucial indicator of quality and potency in mushroom based products. Even if you are not primarily interested in the potential benefits associated with fungal beta-glucans, they are still important as a key indicator of quality and provide you extremely good insights on how the product was manufactured and how much real mushroom it contains enabling you to better compare products in the market and identify the ones offering better value.
What are Beta-Glucans?
Beta-glucans are a type of polysaccharides found in the cell walls of fungi, including mushrooms. They are classified as dietary fibers and are know, mostly, for their potential immune-modulating effects. Structurally, beta-glucans consist of glucose molecules linked together in specific patterns, which vary depending on the mushroom species.
Note it is important to differentiate between generic beta-glucans (found in many vegetable cells, like oats) and FUNGAL beta glucans, only found in fungi (like mushrooms).
The Role of Beta-Glucans in Mushrooms
In mushrooms, beta-glucans may play a pivotal role in supporting immune function. They seem to interact with immune cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells, enhancing their activity and helping the body defend against pathogens and infections. Additionally, beta-glucans may have antioxidant properties that contribute to their protective effects against oxidative stress.
In mushrooms, beta-glucans may play a pivotal role in supporting immune function. They seem to interact with immune cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells, enhancing their activity and helping the body defend against pathogens and infections. Additionally, beta-glucans may have antioxidant properties that contribute to their protective effects against oxidative stress.
Using Beta-Glucans as a Quality Metric
When evaluating mushroom products, the concentration of fungal beta-glucans serves as an indicator of the product quality and potency. Since beta-glucans are predominantly found in the cell walls of mushrooms, their presence and quantity can provide insights into how much of the actual mushroom fruiting body was used to produce the product, be it a liquid or powder.
When evaluating mushroom products, the concentration of fungal beta-glucans serves as an indicator of the product quality and potency. Since beta-glucans are predominantly found in the cell walls of mushrooms, their presence and quantity can provide insights into how much of the actual mushroom fruiting body was used to produce the product, be it a liquid or powder.
Why It Matters
Many mushroom based products on the market use mycelium (the vegetative part of the fungus) grown on grain substrates (usually brown rice) instead of the actual mushroom fruiting body (the real mushroom). This practice can dilute the concentration of bioactive compounds, including (but not limited to) fungal beta-glucans, in the final product. By measuring beta-glucan levels, consumers can ensure they are purchasing supplements derived from the real mushroom, rather than mycelium-rich products that may lack the full spectrum of beneficial compounds.
Many mushroom based products on the market use mycelium (the vegetative part of the fungus) grown on grain substrates (usually brown rice) instead of the actual mushroom fruiting body (the real mushroom). This practice can dilute the concentration of bioactive compounds, including (but not limited to) fungal beta-glucans, in the final product. By measuring beta-glucan levels, consumers can ensure they are purchasing supplements derived from the real mushroom, rather than mycelium-rich products that may lack the full spectrum of beneficial compounds.
Besides outing companies trying to pass myceliated rice as mushrooms, the levels of fungal beta glucans can give a good insight on how much mushroom fruiting body was actually used to make an extract and how efficient its manufacturing process was.
There are not many commercially available tests in the market to test specific mushroom nutrients but, thankfully, fungal beta glucans can be tested commercially for a very affordable price. Products not disclosing their fungal beta-glucans levels are choosing to do so to prevent customers from comparing their products against others.
For example:
Scenario 1)
We have tested the fungal beta-glucans of our lion’s mane liquids and it came back as 2g of fungal beta-glucans per 100g of product.
We use approximately 227mg of mushroom fruiting body per 1 ml of our liquids.
Another product claims they used, let’s say, 1000 mg of mushroom fruiting body per 1ml of liquid (so approximately. 4.5x more than ours) but their fungal beta-glucan content test came back as 2g of beta-glucans per 100g of product. Same as ours. How come? Shouldn’t it be 4.5 times more… like 9?
Two possible conclusions:
- The process they are using is just wasting mushrooms. Which is common when people are running their first extracts and still trying to find the optimum quantity to use. We’ve been there in our first days - It took us quite some time to get to 227mg/ml. Using more just creates more powder in the bottom of the extract. Using less makes the extract colourless / milky. We found that around 227mg/ml we got a good product with good feedback from customers.
- They are actually using less than 1000mg of mushroom fruiting body per 1ml
Scenario 2)
We have tested the fungal beta-glucans of our lion’s mane fruiting body powder and it came back as 29.5 g/100g
Another product claims they have a powder made with fruiting body only and their lab tests show 10g/100g of fungal beta glucans.
- They are probably not using only mushroom fruiting body as you would expect something closer to 30g/100g. It probably has lots of rice powder in it
Scenario 3)
Another product claims they mix mycelium and fruiting body using 70% fruiting body and 30% mycelium and lab tests show 10g/100g of fungal beta glucans
- Also probably incorrect as with 70% fruiting body you would expect the concentration of fungal beta glucans closer to 21 g/100g.
On that note, when companies sell “Fruiting body + mycelium” and “Fruiting body” as two different products but not the mycelium (myceliated brown rice) by itself, you have reasons to suspect they do it so you cannot compare the three of them and figure out the “Fruiting body + mycelium” is, in reality, only mycelium (myceliated brown rice) and very little (if any) real mushroom.
So… what is the message?
Look for products that specify their fungal beta-glucan content per gram and make available a report from a third party lab that tested it.
Look for products that specify their fungal beta-glucan content per gram and make available a report from a third party lab that tested it.
This transparency allows consumers to compare different products with an objective tool and identity which one has better value even when they are not primarily interested in the fungal beta-glucan potential benefits.