Dual Extraction Process
To Dual or not to Dual, that is the question?
The dual extraction process is as it sounds, done twice. Once with alcohol and once with hot water. So we all extract on a daily basis making tea and coffee.
Lots of controversy here with many schools of thought, not only as to whether the dual process is necessary but also as to the right or wrong way to do it. In very basic terms we are using a solvent to extract the nutrients from the mushroom cellular structure.
Mushroom powders are the fruiting body dried, ground and encapsulated, but most of the nutrients are in the cells which are encased in Chitin, which the human body can’t digest, so you lose most of their benefits…. an extraction is necessary!
Most edible mushrooms will do fine with the hot water extraction because many of their (but not all) benefits are in their Polysaccharides, which are water soluble.
Then other medicinal mushrooms such as the Reishi and Chagra have many of their benefits (but again not all) stored in their Triterpines – which require an alcohol based extraction, so they definitely benefit from the dual extraction.
The next area of conflict is which extraction to do first, the alcohol or the water and for how long? Most say alcohol first then water. Some say that most of the extraction in alcohol occurs in the first 15 minutes, some do it for up to 8 weeks. Then there is the “what percentage alcohol to use” So there are many variables to consider.
We didn’t like the 99.9% alcohol mix as we felt it destroyed, or at least changed some of the beneficial properties. We settled on 60% and make it with 99.9% Denatured Herbasol which is Ethyl Alcohol, diluted with spring water. This is a sugar cane based Ethanol plant solvent specifically designed to break down plant cells to access their nutrition.
Then with the what to do first, we didn’t like either, doing the water extraction first left a soggy mess for the alcohol to work on. Doing the alcohol extraction first left the same soggy mess and might have damaged some of what the water needed to extract even with the lowered alcohol level.
So we took the easy way out…
On the edible mushroom strains such as the Lion’s Mane and the Cordyceps we do 25% of the dried mushroom in a 60% alcohol solution for a 30+ days and the 75% balance goes into hot water for 1+ hour.
On the more medicinal mushrooms like Reishi and Chagra we do the opposite, 75% of the dried mushroom goes into the alcohol for 30+ days and the 25% balance gets the hot water for 1+ hour. This is due to their much harder bark like and nutritional structure.
Then we dilute the filtered alcohol mix extract with the filtered water mix extract to achieve the 25 to 30% alcohol ratio needed for extended shelf life, (actually we add the alcohol mix to the water mix so as not to damage anything with the stronger alcohol solution) this entails getting the water mix to be a little more in volume than the alcohol mix, to halve the 60% and make a less that 30% final alcohol content product. So we simmer the water mix down or add spring water to acheive this.
Alcohol Extraction
You can use Vodka which is 43% alcohol and create a perfectly acceptable tincture.
We have found 60% alcohol to give the optimum extraction. We use Herbasol (specifically designed to extract from cellular structures) which is 99.9% pure cane ethanol and add spring water to reduce it to 60%
We take 25% or 75% of the dried mushroom, which is ground up first, and add it to a glass jar, We then cover it with the 60% alcohol to about 2cm above the ground mushroom level. The jars are sealed and shaken daily to ensure an even mix and the alcohol level is monitored. This continues for 30+ days. Then the mix is strained through a sieve and then again through a muslin cloth. The resulting liquid is stored in another glass jar and the old grounds are composted.
Hot water Extraction - Decoction
We use spring water here and add the 75% or 25% balance of the dried mushrooms to this, hot but not boiling, so more of a steep.
We do this steep for just over an hour then let it cool and then go through the same straining process with the sieve and muslin cloth.
This resulting liquid is clearer than the alcohol extract because Polysacharides are more water soluble.
This is one of the reasons for the sediment in the bottom of the dropper bottle. When we mix the alcohol and hot water extracts together a lot of the polysaccarides solidify back due to the alcohol. So we only filter the extract once through muslin so as not waste them.
Content of bioactive compounds and nutrients present in the mycelium and fruiting bodies of C. militaris.
Table 1
| Content | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bioactive Compound | Mycelium | Fruiting Bodies | References |
| Cordycepin | 1.82 mg/g | 1.10 mg/g | [9] |
| Cordycepin | 1.74 mg/g | 5.28 mg/g (Water extrct) |
[7] |
| Cordycepin | 8.37 mg/g (Ethanol extract) |
[7] | |
| D-mannitol | 5.2 mg/kg | 4.7 mg/kg | [9] |
| Ergothioneine | 130.6 mg/kg | 782.3 mg/kg | [9] |
| Ergothioneine | 123.4–785.1 mg/kg | 409.8 μg/g | [7,8] |
| GABA | 68.6–180.1 mg/kg | 756.30 μg/g | [7,8] |
| Lovastatin | 37.7–57.3 mg/kg | 2.76 μg/g | [7,8] |
| Vitamins | |||
| Vit. A | 100 mg/kg | 96 mg/kg | [9] |
| Vit. E (tocopherols) | 1.3 mg/kg | 3.6 mg/kg | [9] |
| Vit. B2 (riboflavin) | 0.32 mg/kg | 0.16 mg/kg | [9] |
| Vit. B3 (niacin) | 15.2 mg/kg | 4.9 mg/kg | [9] |
| Vit. C | Not detected | <2 mg/kg | [9] |
| Bioelements | |||
| Magnesium | 3414 mg/kg | 4227 mg/kg | [9] |
| Sulfur | 2558 mg/kg | 5088 mg/kg | [9] |
| Potassium | 12,183 mg/kg | 15,938 mg/kg | [9] |
| Selenium | <0.5 mg/kg | 0.4 mg/kg | [9] |
| Iron | 9 mg/kg | 31 mg/kg | [9] |
| Calcium | 11 mg/kg | 797 mg/kg | [9] |
| Zinc | 10 mg/kg | Not detected | [9] |
| Nutrients | |||
| Protein | 39.5% | 59.8% | [9] |
| Protein | Not analyzed | 29.7% | [7] |
| Fat | 2.2% | 8.8% | [9] |
| Fat | Not analyzed | 2.9% | [7] |
| Carbohydrate | 39.6% | 29.1% | [9] |
| Carbohydrate | Not analyzed | 54.3% | [7] |
