Inonotus obliquus aka clinker polypore, cinder conk, black mass and birch canker polypore. #Chaga #Mushroom Cut & Sifted #Wildcrafted in #Canada. Chaga is traditionally grated into a fine powder and used to brew a nourishing beverage resembling coffee or tea that tastes strongly of Chinese herbal tea.

Common Uses: Hot water extraction is a common preparation. A decoction is created by simmering blocklike pieces of the chaga in numerous quarts of water until the water is reduced and the remaining liquid contains a portion of the chaga's concentrated water-soluble compounds. If chaga tea is prepared at home, the chaga chunks can be reused multiple times.

History: Potawatomi people use the fungus, called shkitagen in their language, as a firekeeping tinder. According to Potawatomi biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer, "Once an ember meets shkitagen it will not go out but smolders slowly in the fungal matrix, holding its heat. Even the smallest spark, so fleeting and easily lost, will be held and nurtured if it lands on a cube of shkitagen."
Quoted from Kimmerer, Robin Wall (2013). Shkitagen: People of the Seventh Fire. Braiding Sweetgrass (1st ed.). Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions. ISBN 978-1-57131-335-5.

Order 1 whole bag (normally 1 lb) and receive 20% off while supplies last! I'll apply the discount when you order 454g of a single herb, and refund or add bonus product as applicable.

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Sold by the gram. Please bring or order a bag.

MINIMUM ORDER IS 100g OR $5 WORTH

You can bring your own container if you are picking up. Please make sure that you bring bottles for liquids and wide-mouthed jars or bags for solids and herbs. Please make sure that the containers you bring are the right size. To use your container for oils, the bottle must be exactly the right size because I will be filling your order by volume. A 1000mL J jar, not a quart jar. In case of shorting due to metric versus imperial measures, I may fill your container right to the top, your measure might be short, or I may ask you to buy an extra container.

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Chemical constituents thanks to Wikipedia:

The fungus is principally noted for high-molecular-weight polysaccharidesm, chiefly β-D-glucans and heteropolysaccharides, together with a distinctive lanostane-type triterpenoid fraction comprising betulin, betulinic acid, lanosterol, lupeol, inonotusols, inotodiol, trametenolic acid, inonotusoxides, spirononotusoxodiol and the inoterpens. Phenolic constituents include vanillic acid, protocatechuic acid, syringic acid, caffeic acid, phelligridin D, 3,4-dihydroxybenzalacetone and inonolin B, accompanied by the flavonoids quercetin, rutin and kaempferol.
See A brief overview of the medicinal and nutraceutical importance of Inonotus obliquus (chaga) mushrooms. Published in Heliyon. 2024 Aug 6;10(15):e35638. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e35638
The black sclerotium has large concentrations of melanin.

Why sustainably harvested?
This chaga is sustainably harvested in Ontario and is designated "wildcrafted".
Attempts at cultivating this fungus on potato dextrose agar and other simulated media resulted in a reduced and markedly different production of metabolites. Cultivated chaga developed a reduced number of phytosterols, particularly lanosterol, an intermediate in the synthesis of ergosterol and lanostane-type triterpenes.

CAUTION: Please exercise caution if you are using chaga daily, and long terms, or if you have any kidney condition. Chaga contains extremely high concentrations of oxalate, 2800–11200 mg total oxalates/100 g sclerotium, one of the highest reported in any organism.

Photo thanks to Björn S..., CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons