SIBERIAN CHAGA MUSHROOM (INONOTUS OBLIQUUS)
He could think of no greater pleasure than to go off into the woods for months on end, to break off this chaga, crumble it, boil it over a campfire, drink it and feel as good as an animal. Walking through the forest for months, knowing no other care than to get better! Like a dog in search of a mysterious grass that will save him.
From " The Cancer Ward"
By Alexander Solzenicyn
Chaga - the priceless gold of russia.
Endless birch woods, little birch woods on the banks of numerous rivers and streams, delicate white and green areas of birch ligneous... No other country in the world has such an abundance of birch trees. And one of the most mysterious health-promoting wonders of Russian nature seems to be the chaga mushroom that grows on birch trunks. Thanks to its unique properties, wild chaga is becoming increasingly popular in many countries. It is particularly sought after by the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Americans. The chaga mushroom has very distinctive characteristics and has the appearance of a black fissured mass. Unlike any other mushroom, chaga does not actually grow on the bark of a tree, but develops from the inside of a trunk outwards. It is very easy to distinguish chaga from any other mushroom that grows on trees.
In Russia, chaga is also known as "black birch mushroom", "birch lip" or "shulta". Its current name "chaga" probably comes from the Old Slavic word "gaga", which means "a lip". The Siberians call the chaga "shulta".
In Russia, the birch tree has always been a symbol of Russia and was considered one of the most healing trees. In local folk medicine, every part of the birch tree (sap, leaves, buds, wood, bark, chaga mushroom) is used for health-promoting purposes and health-related applications. Chaga and birch are closely connected. 
The age of the tree plays an important role in the acquisition and accumulation of health-promoting properties by the chaga mushroom due to the natural symbiosis between the birch tree and the chaga mushroom. The chaga mushroom draws its nutrients from a living birch tree rather than from the soil. Therefore, the older the tree is, the more biologically active substances will have accumulated in the chaga mushroom over the course of time.
The best hosts for chaga are Betula pendula and Betula pubescens. Sometimes chaga destroys the birch it grows on. However, this usually happens to very old trees that are exhausted by chaga mushrooms. This is especially true when there are several chaga mushrooms on one trunk. The picture above is an example of such a case.
CHAGA FOR HEALTH SUPPORT SHOULD BE WILD GROWN.
Any attempt to cultivate chaga in an artificial way will never be able to reproduce the health-promoting properties of the wild chaga mushroom. This is due to the fact that artificial chaga mushrooms cannot have the chromogenic complex that is only found in the wild species.
The pictures below may help you to distinguish the wild chaga mushroom from the cultivated chaga mushroom. The wild chaga mushroom consists of three parts: The outer black layer called the sclerotium, the second part called the fruiting body, and the third part, which is porous and soft. The chaga mushroom's conk consists mainly of this yellowish and useless layer, so it is worth remembering this when checking the quality.
More than 80% of the biologically active substances in the chaga mushroom are concentrated in the sclerotium and the fruiting body. Artificially grown chaga has no "fruiting body" and its sclerotium layer is extremely thin.
CROSS SECTION OF the CHAGA mushroom.
The three layers are clearly visible. The sclerotium is the oldest layer and the most beneficial to humans. The light brown layer is "transitional". All the sap and phytonutrients of a birch tree pass through this layer without leaving much trace and end up in the fruiting body and the sclerotium. Throughout the life of a birch tree, phytonutrients, trace elements, chaga acids and other biologically active compounds accumulate in these two layers. This is why an old chaga mushroom is potentially more potent than a young one.
The chaga on the right may never have grown on a birch tree. It has probably been grown artificially on a farm by fermentation. Its layer of sclerotia is very thin, and there is no fruiting body to be seen - just a yellow, porous substance.
We have to manually remove this 'useless layer' from each and every piece of chaga before it goes into the production process in order to achieve the premium quality of our chaga extract. And this is why it is renowned for its exceptionally high concentration of antioxidants.
As a result, only those layers of chaga that are rich in antioxidants and melatonin are used for manufacturing of our chaga extract, which is almost black in colour.
A chaga mushroom chunk ready to be processed into chaga extract is shown in the left picture.
There is a difference between raw chaga and chaga extract.
Chaga extract is much more potent than raw chaga (chaga tea). This is important to know if you want to get the maximum benefit from chaga. Information on the difference between raw chaga and chaga extract can be found in the following article. To order freeze-dried chaga extract powder, visit our chagastore.
it has an amazing God-given powers!