What's the difference between reishi spores and the reishi fruiting body? The fruiting body is the shelf-like mushroom itself, used for centuries as a tea or extract. Spores are the microscopic "seeds" it releases, sold as spore powder or pressed into spore oil. Spore products are marketed as more potent, but the human evidence for them is small: a handful of short pilot trials, mostly in people with cancer, with mixed results. They're also more expensive, and spore powder can pick up contaminants during collection. Here's how the two compare.
Reishi spores are tiny reproductive cells with a tough double wall, sold as "broken-wall" spore powder or as spore oil. In a 4-week pilot with 48 breast cancer patients, spore powder improved fatigue scores (Zhao 2012). In a 6-week pilot with 42 people with Alzheimer's disease, it didn't improve cognition (Wang 2018). The fruiting body's evidence is also limited: a 16-week trial in metabolic syndrome found no benefit (Klupp 2016). Spore powder can carry phthalate plasticiser residues (Li 2018). Both forms have rare links to liver injury, so choose a tested product and stop if symptoms appear.
This guide explains what each form is, what the research shows, and how to choose. For general dosing, see our reishi dosage guide. For reading product labels, see how to read a reishi label.
What Are Reishi Spores?
Spores are how reishi reproduces. When the fruiting body matures, it releases huge numbers of microscopic spores from the pores on its underside. Growers collect them by covering or bagging the mushrooms, so the brown spore dust settles where it can be gathered.
Each spore has a hard, two-layered wall called the sporoderm. Sellers argue that this wall must be cracked for the contents to be absorbed, so most products are sold as "broken-wall" or "cracked-cell" spore powder. Spore oil goes a step further. It's extracted from spore powder, usually with supercritical carbon dioxide, and concentrates the fatty, oily compounds.
Spores are produced in much smaller quantities than the mushroom itself, and collecting them is fiddly. That's a big part of why spore products cost so much more.
What Is the Reishi Fruiting Body?
The fruiting body is the visible mushroom: a glossy, reddish-brown, woody shelf with a kidney-shaped cap. It's too tough to eat, so it's sliced or powdered and then simmered in water, extracted in alcohol, or both.
Hot water pulls out polysaccharides, including beta-glucans. Alcohol pulls out more of the bitter triterpenes, such as ganoderic acids. A dual extract uses both. Our comparison of reishi powder, capsules and tincture explains how the fruiting-body formats differ.
The fruiting body is what traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine used, and it's what most reishi research has studied. Spore products are a much more recent development, driven largely by commercial growers in China.
What Does the Research on Spores Show?
It's small and mixed. In a Chinese pilot, 48 women with breast cancer who were having hormone therapy and reported fatigue were randomised to spore powder or a control group for four weeks. The spore group improved on fatigue and physical wellbeing scores, reported less anxiety and depression, and had lower levels of two inflammation markers. No serious side effects were reported (Zhao 2012).
A pilot in 42 people with Alzheimer's disease took the same approach for six weeks, with a placebo control. Spore powder didn't improve cognitive scores compared with placebo (Wang 2018). An observational study of 120 people after breast or lung cancer surgery reported favourable changes in immune cell markers in those who used spore powder, but it wasn't randomised (Deng 2021).
That's thin evidence. The trials were short and small, and the abstract of the most positive one doesn't describe a placebo, so expectation may have played a part. None compared spores with the fruiting body directly.
What Does the Research on the Fruiting Body Show?
More studies, but also mixed. The fruiting body is used in most reishi trials, for immune markers, sleep, fatigue and metabolic health. Results vary a lot with the product and the dose.
A well-designed Australian trial gave 84 adults with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome 3 g a day of reishi, reishi with cordyceps, or placebo for 16 weeks. It found no improvement in blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol or other cardiovascular risk factors (Klupp 2016). That's a useful reality check. Reishi isn't a reliable fix for metabolic problems, whatever the form.
Where reishi may help is more modest: sleep quality and a sense of calm, which are also what most people take it for. Our article on reishi and sleep covers that research.
Are Reishi Spores Safe?
Generally well tolerated in short trials, but quality is a real concern. Spores are collected in bags or plastic covers, and a Chinese study found that spore powder is easily contaminated with phthalates, which are plasticisers. The researchers showed that supercritical fluid extraction could remove them, which suggests the problem is common enough to need fixing (Li 2018).
Heavy metals are another concern, because spores and mushrooms can absorb them from the growing medium. A reputable product should provide a certificate of analysis showing tests for heavy metals and, ideally, plasticisers.
Liver injury is rare but documented for reishi powder products. A Hong Kong report described hepatotoxicity linked to a reishi formulation (Yuen 2004), and a Thai report described a fatal case of liver failure after taking reishi mushroom powder (Wanmuang 2007). These cases are rare, but they're a reason to stop any reishi product if you notice yellowing of the skin, dark urine or abdominal pain. Our guide to reishi side effects and interactions has more.
How Do Spores and Fruiting Body Compare at a Glance?
- Source: spores are reproductive cells; the fruiting body is the mushroom itself.
- Main compounds: spore oil is rich in fatty compounds and triterpenes; fruiting-body extracts provide polysaccharides and triterpenes.
- Processing: spores need their wall broken; the fruiting body needs extraction.
- Research base: spores have a few small pilot trials; the fruiting body has more trials, with mixed results.
- Cost: spores are much more expensive.
- Contamination risk: spore powder can carry plasticisers from collection bags; both can carry heavy metals.
How Do You Use Each Form?
Fruiting-body products are the most flexible. Whole slices or powder can be simmered into a tea for an hour or more; our mushroom tea guide explains the method. Extract powders dissolve into hot drinks, and capsules and tinctures need no preparation at all. Because reishi is bitter, many people prefer capsules or mix the tea with ginger or cocoa.
Spore powder is usually taken as capsules or stirred into warm water, often once or twice a day. It has a mild, slightly earthy taste and doesn't need simmering, because the wall has already been broken during processing. Spore oil comes in softgels and is usually taken with food, since its compounds are fat-soluble.
Whichever form you choose, give it several weeks and keep the product consistent. Switching between spores, extracts and powders makes it impossible to tell what, if anything, is helping. If you take medicines for blood pressure, blood sugar or blood clotting, check with your doctor before starting either form.
Which Should You Choose?
For most people, a fruiting-body product is the sensible default. It's the form most research has used, it's far cheaper, and it's easy to find in tested, transparent formats. A dual extract gives you both the water-soluble and alcohol-soluble compounds.
Spore powder or oil may be worth considering if you're specifically following the cancer-support research and your oncology team agrees. In that case, choose a broken-wall product with a certificate of analysis, and tell your doctors you're taking it, because reishi can interact with some treatments.
For transparency, we don't sell spore products. Our reishi powder is milled whole fruiting body, and our reishi capsules contain a 10:1 dual extract of the fruiting body.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are reishi spores stronger than the mushroom?
Not proven. Spore oil concentrates certain compounds, but no trial has compared spores with a fruiting-body extract directly. "Stronger" on a label usually means a higher concentration of one compound group, not better results in people.
What does "broken-wall" mean?
Reishi spores have a hard double wall. "Broken-wall" or "cracked-cell" powder has been processed to crack that wall, which is thought to make the contents easier to absorb. Unbroken spores are likely to pass through largely undigested.
Can I take spores and fruiting body together?
Some people do, but there's no evidence that combining them works better. If you combine them, count both towards your total intake, and check with your doctor if you take other medicines.
How much spore powder do people take?
Product labels typically suggest one to two grams a day. There's no well-established dose. The trials used varying amounts, and the products differ widely in processing and quality.
Is spore oil the same as spore powder?
No. Spore oil is extracted from spore powder and contains mainly the fat-soluble compounds. It's more concentrated in those compounds but lacks the polysaccharides found in the powder.
Related Articles
- Reishi Dosage Guide
- How to Read a Reishi Label
- Reishi Powder vs Capsules vs Tincture
- Reishi Side Effects and Interactions
- Reishi and Sleep Quality
Sources
- Zhao H, Zhang Q, Zhao L, et al. Spore powder of Ganoderma lucidum improves cancer-related fatigue in breast cancer patients undergoing endocrine therapy: a pilot clinical trial. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012;2012:809614. PubMed 22203880
- Wang GH, Wang LH, Wang C, Qin LH. Spore powder of Ganoderma lucidum for the treatment of Alzheimer disease: a pilot study. Medicine (Baltimore). 2018;97(19):e0636. PubMed 29742702
- Deng Y, Ma J, Tang D, Zhang Q. Dynamic biomarkers indicate the immunological benefits provided by Ganoderma spore powder in post-operative breast and lung cancer patients. Clin Transl Oncol. 2021;23(7):1481-1490. PubMed 33405051
- Klupp NL, Kiat H, Bensoussan A, et al. A double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of Ganoderma lucidum for the treatment of cardiovascular risk factors of metabolic syndrome. Sci Rep. 2016;6:29540. PubMed 27511742
- Li P, Liang ZH, Jiang Z, et al. Supercritical fluid extraction effectively removes phthalate plasticizers in spores of Ganoderma lucidum. Food Sci Biotechnol. 2018;27(6):1857-1864. PubMed 30483450
- Yuen MF, Ip P, Ng WK, Lai CL. Hepatotoxicity due to a formulation of Ganoderma lucidum (lingzhi). J Hepatol. 2004;41(4):686-687. PubMed 15464254
- Wanmuang H, Leopairut J, Kositchaiwat C, et al. Fatal fulminant hepatitis associated with Ganoderma lucidum (Lingzhi) mushroom powder. J Med Assoc Thai. 2007;90(1):179-181. PubMed 17621752