Beyond Beta-Glucans: A Better Way to Evaluate Functional Mushroom Supplements

Many companies that produce functional mushroom supplements use single-compound measurements, such as beta-glucan content, to communicate the efficacy of their products. But as our understanding of mushroom biochemistry continues to evolve, we believe it’s important to look beyond any single compound when evaluating the potential benefits of functional mushrooms.* 

To understand why, it helps to take a closer look at beta-glucans—what they are, how they function, and what it actually means when beta-glucan content appears on a product label.

What Are Beta-Glucans?

Beta-glucans are found throughout nature. They’re everywhere—in grains, shrimp, scallops, other seafood, insects, and, of course, fungi. 

Historically, scientists studying the biochemistry of mushrooms have focused heavily on beta-glucans. These long-chain sugar molecules are polymers composed of up to 70% glucose monomers—the building blocks of glucose, which are largely indigestible. 

Much of the structure of a mushroom fruiting body is made up of beta-glucans. But as our understanding of mushroom biochemistry has advanced, we’ve come to believe that some of the most significant compounds associated with functional mushrooms are not the indigestible glucose monomers themselves.*

Beta-Glucans Are Not the Whole Story

While beta-glucans may engage the immune system at face-value, they are not the whole story. Research continues to show that the benefits of mushrooms may depend on the complex combination of compounds they contain—not simply maximizing a single compound.* 

Instead, scientists have come to recognize that beta-glucans are only one part of the picture. Mushroom fruiting bodies and mycelium also contain other compound classes, such as lipids, that may offer their own bioactivity. We believe the whole fungal ingredient can demonstrate a wider array of bioactivity and immunological potential than the mere presence of beta-glucans alone.* 

Lipids, including fatty acids, are the same broad class of compounds that make up the membranes of human cells. Unlike large polysaccharide chains, fatty acids are readily absorbed in the gut, and mushroom mycelium carries many of the lipids our bodies utilize to remain in a healthy state.* 

This distinction becomes particularly important when we consider how functional mushroom supplements are typically processed.

What Can Be Lost When We Focus Solely on Beta-Glucans?

Many producers of functional mushroom supplements use hot-water extraction on a mushroom fruiting body to create a product intended to benefit human health. But when a mushroom fruiting body is extracted with hot water for beta-glucans, something can be lost. 

Hot water extraction is designed to pull out compounds that dissolve in water, like beta-glucans—the polysaccharides in the fungal cell wall. Lipids closely associated with the beta-glucans in the cell wall material—including fatty acids—do not dissolve in water, so a water-only extraction leaves much of them behind in the leftover fiber. Prolonged heat can also degrade the lipids that remain, particularly unsaturated fatty acids, which are sensitive to heat and oxidation. 

As a result, a hot-water extract can test very high in beta-glucans while containing little of the bioactive lipids originally present in the whole mushroom fruiting body or mycelium. 

This is one reason we believe mushroom mycelium-based products may offer a broader spectrum of naturally occurring bioactive compounds than mushroom fruiting body products made solely with hot-water extraction. Rather than optimizing a product around a high concentration of one structural compound, we believe it’s important to preserve and study the broader spectrum of compounds fungi naturally produce.* 

In essence, when judging the quality of a functional mushroom supplement, measuring beta-glucan content is irrelevant when compared to the broad range of beneficial compounds that a mushroom mycelium-based supplement can offer. 

Why Beta-Glucan Counts Aren't a Useful Biomarker

There is another challenge with treating beta-glucans as the defining measure of the quality of functional mushroom supplements at large: beta-glucans are nonspecific. 

The variability among beta-glucans is massive. “Beta-glucan” does not refer to one single snippet of a molecule, and there is no authenticated scientific method for measuring beta-glucans. Once a company puts beta-glucan content on its label, that measurement cannot be authenticated in a way that tells consumers whether those beta-glucans are actually good for them. 

That is the larger problem with relying on a single-compound marker: measuring how much of something is present does not necessarily tell us how biologically beneficial the finished product will be.* 

While scientists originally focused on beta-glucans when studying mushroom biochemistry, continued research has revealed a much deeper well of knowledge to draw from. As with all science, new technologies, new research, and deeper exploration lead to new ideas and discoveries. 

The more we study fungi, the more we realize how much there is still to learn.

Moving From Single Compounds to Biological Complexity

At Fungi Perfecti, LLC, we have increasingly focused on compounds that we can analyze, identify, and test—and that are compatible with human digestion. 

This research has affirmed our belief that one isolated compound cannot adequately represent the potential of a complex biological system. 

To understand why that matters, consider the receptors found on human cells. A single molecule may activate one receptor, or perhaps a few receptors. But when you introduce a multiplicity of constituents, those different compounds can communicate with multiple receptors. 

Those receptors can then begin cross-talking with one another. 

This is where cutting-edge science is revealing the importance of communication among multiple receptors in response to diverse constituents. The human body can be compared to a complex computer system capable of sorting through these different biological signals. 

Rather than focusing on a single pathway, researchers are exploring how multiple constituents may support normal immune function by interacting with multiple receptors.*

Why Mushroom Mycelium Matters