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Abscisic Acid: The Science Behind Figs and Their Metabolic Benefits Introduction Figuring Out the Facts As unsubstantiated health advice proliferates, the humble fruit faces unwarranted criticism owing to its natural sugar content. Contemporary dietary movements have marked fruit as being harmful to one’s health. This adverse perception has resulted in misunderstandings, particularly regarding specific plants […]

Introduction Human evolution has been profoundly shaped by dietary practices, yet the role of fungi—particularly mushrooms—has been largely overlooked. My Gourmet Ape Theory proposes that the consumption of ERGO-rich mushrooms provided early hominids and hominins with significant evolutionary advantages. As the reproductive structures of fungi, mushrooms served as a potent source of bioactive compounds that

Introducing… Reishi! Let me introduce you to one of the most revered of all medicinal mushrooms: Reishi! Reishi is the most popular common name used today, being the Japanese pronunciation of the traditional Chinese term líng-zhī, which is a difficult term to translate. Líng means something like spiritual, miraculous, sacred, or divine. Zhī has no

Introducing… Maitake! Maitake (Grifola frondosa) is a widespread edible and delicious fungus of the Northern Hemisphere, which is known around the world by many names. In English, it is called hen of the woods (distinct from chicken of the woods, another edible fungus). The Chinese name translates to “grey tree flower” which is a perfect

Introducing… Shiitake! Shiitake! Here is a familiar mushroom that is native to Asia but is now commonly incorporated into Western diets. Little do many of us realise that this attractive and delicious mushroom packs a hugely powerful immunological punch when consumed regularly! Shiitake is the most universal common name for the mushroom of Lentinula edodes,

Introducing… Chaga! Chaga is the common name applied to the medicinal fungus Inonotus obliquus. This species is saprotrophic, meaning it feeds on tree wood, having various possible hosts but tending to preference birch trees. Notably, Chaga is not a mushroom and looks vastly different to fun gal fruiting bodies. It has the appearance of burnt

Introducing… Lion’s Mane! In my last post I introduced an interesting medicinal fungus, Cordyceps. In a similar vein, today we will have a look at another visually distinctive fungal specimen with unique medicinal value: Lion’s Mane. Lion’s Mane, Hericium erinaceus, is a fungus that feeds on the wood of certain dead/decaying trees (a saprotrophic fungus)

Introducing… Cordyceps! Welcome to the first in what I envision as a series of blog posts, introducing the best of the medicinal mushroom world! Let us kick off with a particularly weird and wonderful fungus with a long and illustrious history of medicinal use, that technically is not even a mushroom: Cordyceps! Cordyceps are particularly