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| Reishi Mushroom Liquid Extract |
| Place chopped, dried mushrooms in a blender and cover with 80-proof or 100-proof vodka. Blend until it is the consistency of a fruit smoothie. Pour into a quart or 1/2-gallon canning jar. After 30 minutes, the mushroom pieces will sink to the bottom and there will be about an inch of clear liquid at the top of the jar. Make sure no pieces of mushroom stick up above the liquid. Shake the bottle each day and keep it in a warm place away from direct light. Strain after two weeks, squeezing as much liquid as possible from the mushroom pulp. (This is a simple tincture.) Pour the liquid tincture back into a clean jar with a lid. Now, place the mushroom pulp in a pot and cover with five times as much water. Simmer for 1 hour. Cool and then strain and squeeze as much liquid from the pulp as possible. Compost the pulp. Pour the liquid decoction back in the pot and simmer until it is reduced to 1/5 of its original volume. Add this concentrate back to the original tincture, making sure that this final preparation contains at least 20 to 25 percent alcohol. (You can calculate this based upon the percentage of alcohol in the first tincture.) Hobbs says that this preparation is ''richer in the immune-activating and antitumor polysaccharides, as well as the protein-bound polysaccharides and will be more tonifying than the original alcohol preparation.'' |
| An effective dose of reishi is 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of the above preparation twice daily in water or ginger tea, or 3 tablets, three times a day. Reishi mushroom is considered nontoxic and safe to use. Rare side effects are upset stomach after long-term use. |
| Schisandra |
| (Schisandra chinensis) |
| Part used: Fruit |
| Actions: Tonic, astringent, sedative, antibacterial, hepatoprotective, antidepressant, antiallergenic, adaptogenic |
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