Turkey Tail Mushroom Extract

Turkey tail extract is produced from the dried fruiting body of Trametes versicolor (L.) Lloyd, family Polyporaceae, order Polyporales — the bracket fungus long catalogued under the synonyms Coriolus versicolor (L.) Quél. and Polyporus versicolor (L.) Fr., and known in Chinese materia medica as yunzhi. It is a white-rot wood decayer that fruits in tiled, concentrically zoned rosettes on the stumps and fallen logs of deciduous trees, and the same banded appearance is what gives it its English name. Note that this is a fungal ingredient, not a plant: it sits in the herbal-extract catalogue for buyer convenience, but its identity, its assay chemistry and its regulatory treatment all differ from a botanical extract. The commercially meaningful number on a turkey tail specification is beta-glucan, not total polysaccharide. Total polysaccharide is measured colorimetrically and will happily count starch, so a mycelium-on-grain product that carries residual cereal substrate can post a high polysaccharide figure while contributing very little fungal glucan. Thovek's default article is fruiting-body-only hot-water extract, assayed for total glucan and alpha-glucan enzymatically with beta-glucan taken by difference, and both the alpha and beta figures are printed on the certificate of analysis so a buyer can see exactly what they are paying for. Standard grades run 30%, 40% or 50% polysaccharides with 20% or 30% beta-D-glucan; higher beta-glucan cuts are made to order. The species is also the source organism for the protein-bound polysaccharide preparations described in the scientific literature as PSK, isolated in Japan from the CM-101 strain, and PSP, isolated in China from the COV-1 strain; those are separate pharmaceutical articles and Thovek's food-grade extract is neither of them and is not offered as a substitute for either. The material is a light to dark brown free-flowing powder with a mild earthy odour, water-soluble and suitable for stick packs, mushroom coffee premixes and beverage bases as well as capsules and tablets. It is fungal-sourced, so it is vegan and vegetarian and contains no bovine, porcine, marine, milk, egg or crustacean material. Fruiting-body extract is free of gluten-bearing cereals; mycelium grown on a rice or other grain substrate is a different article that can carry cereal residue, and Thovek supplies it only when it is specifically ordered and labelled as such. Two regulatory points belong on the purchase order before contracting. Turkey tail is treated as a novel food in the European Union and requires authorisation before it may be placed on the EU food or food-supplement market, so EU-bound orders need the destination status confirmed first. Wild-harvested and cultivated mushrooms are also known accumulators of heavy metals, which is why every lot is screened for lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury rather than certified on a supplier declaration.