Let’s jump ahead nearly 40 years and look at where Cordyceps Mushroom cultivation is today:
We have acertained that the most potent strains began to be cultivated back in 1999 with the purchase of CS-4 cultures from private manufacturers in China. This was the first strain produced in a lab-growen setting.
In 2001 another ten strains from the Government of China. But research using DNA analysis and the most up-to-date analytical methods such as GC/MS and HPLC/MS showed that none of these strains were identical to the wild.
They were all related anamorphs, but they were not “True Cordyceps”. Since 2001 over 400 different cultures were isolated from specimens purchased in herb stores and collected from the wild in Tibet and Nepal.
Every possible combination of culture techniques and growth medium, but it became realized that by using these part-spore cultures there was no way to gain the full potential which is known to occur in the wild variety.
In order to properly grow these fungi you must have a spore print of the fungus available to use as a inoculant on new growth media, some people have reported success with trying to get a spore print from a mushroom that has just opened but it is a risky business which has resulted in many spores being wasted.
In nature cordyceps grow as a parasitic fungi on the back of their host, infecting caterpillars mainly by entering through the insect’s breathing holes and then slowly taking over its nervous system as it matures.
Once fully mature the cordyceps releases chemicals that start to break down its own cells from within to provide food for the fungus which is now colonizing inside of it.
In an effort to reproduce these effects artificially growers typically remove a member of a colony from its substrate and place it in a jar with a high humidity lid or cover which they will attempt to mimic by sealing the container with either Glad-wrap or cling-wrap.
To achieve the wild quality requires a much more complex approach, involving the replication of the wild Cordyceps growth conditions and triggering fusion between several part-spore cultures to achieve the full DNA sequence.
This approach was so unique it was issued the only patent ever granted for the hybridization of mushrooms! This is the only cultivated Cordy strain available today that is genetically and analytically Bio-Identical to the wild occurring in Nature.
This is not to be confused with Genetic Modification. We guarantee there are no genetically modified organisms (GMO) in any of our shroom products. We are opposed to the GMO approach, as well as this being forbidden under USDA and EU Certified Organic standards.
Quality has no substitute. Medicinal Foods utilizes the VERY BEST lab-grown medicinal fungi products in the world today. And we back that statement up with a 100% Money Back guarantee.
These bio-identical cultures originally developed were 100% sinensis in every way, there was still a problem: The strains being grown in cultivation were still not as potent as the wild collected ones. However, they were much better than the militaris variety.
To try and resolve this problem, an expedition to the heartland of wild Tibet was taken.
In May and June of 2006 one of the most comprehensive scientific research expeditions ever undertaken in the mountains of Tibet to study the natural growth parameters of wild Cordy-fungi.
Working with the local nomad people, we identified several hundred of specimens growing directly from the ground.
The growth conditions measured there, such as pH, soil and air temperature and composition, moisture content in the air and soil, the other micro-organisms found in the area, air pressure and virtually everything else.
Brought back to the lab, an entirely new methods of cultivation was developed, which have resulted in mushrooms that is not only bio-identical genetically, but also bio-identical in it’s analytical signature.
Bringing the latest of 21st century American biotechnology to this field has resulted in a quantum leap in cultivation, reducing the cost and increasing the quality of cultivativation.
Using low temp and low oxygen environment resulted in the highest potency lab-grown cordy available. The oxygenation ability was equal to the wild!
These cultivation methods involved building special growing chambers where the oxygen is held at 50% of the normal atmospheric oxygen, and the temperature is held at just above freezing.
This exactly replicates the conditions found during the growing season in Nepal and Tibet at 18,000 feet (5400 meters) elevation.
This Low Temperature, Low Oxygen growth is also patented.
Medicinal Foods and partners are the only company in the world that grows using these techniques and use only mushrooms grown by them.
In the course of developing these new strains, we have made some fantastic discoveries
More than 700 other species of Cordyceps Mushroom in our research department from all corners of the globe and some of many energizing properties and the powder can be taken as an alternative to drinking coffee.
Most of these have not yet been identified by science, and we are making new discoveries regarding their medicinal potential daily.
We believe this pioneering work in the field is changing the way modern health supplements will be researched and developed in the future.
