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mushroom products are both supplements made from lion`s mane: Sango Yamabushitake GOLD and Chikuma Yamabushitake. Made from dried, powdered lion`s mane, and pressed into tablets with a small amount of binding agent, they are designed to be easy to consume supplements for brain health. They come in packs of 180 - 360 tablets, each containing 250mg. The recommended consumption for each of the products is given, between 6-12 tablets per day to be taken with water or tea, and for the Sango Yamabushitake GOLD these are separated into easy-to-use pouches, each containing half a day`s dose.

The real magic in these supplements is the functional compounds that exist within the dried lion`s mane. Lion`s mane is, of course, rich in both β-glucans and hericenone, the latter of which is only found in lion`s mane. Kubo Sangyo has maintained a long partnership with pioneers in research on the compounds of lion`s mane, including Professor Kawagishi Hirokazu at Shizuoka University, and so have been able to link their supplements with various health claims. In particular, they have benefited from research that has shown that hericenone promotes nerve growth factor synthesis, and therefore has the potential to be effective in preventing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

How is it made?
As a processed good, Kubo Sangyo has taken care to refine both the pre-harvest growing conditions, and post-harvest processing. For the former, they have done this by patenting a growing method that is designed to increase the functional compounds within the lion`s mane: through this they have managed to increase the amount of hericenone within a fruiting body by five times over the same species grown using standard methods. As a side benefit, it also gives the mushroom a distinct `coral-like` look, in contrast to the tight `ball` into which lion`s mane usually grows, making it easier to market as a separate product, and also benefiting from a longer shelf-life.

For post-harvest processing, the refinement has been achieved through advancements in drying and grinding, for example using a grinding process that uses a water-cooled mill to maintain a cool temperature that ensures that functional compounds are not degraded during the process. Furthermore, the grinding
process has been further refined to allow them to create the two distinct products : while the Chikuma Yamabushitake tablets are made from a standard powder, Sango Yamabushitake GOLD is made from an extremely fine powder that has individual particle sizes similar to that of tobacco smoke. This extra fine powder has effects on how the product is absorbed by the body, and means that the quantity of β-glucan absorbed by the body is greater.

Who is it for?
Kubo Sangyo have built on cooperative research, and on feedback from their customers, to market each of the two products in distinctive ways that has led to a large number of devoted repeat customers. For the Sango Yamabushitake GOLD, the greater quantity of β-glucan, and its easier absorption due to the fine powder, means that it is marketed more towards improving and maintaining a healthy immune system, though still with all the benefits gained from the hericenone.

For the Chikuma Yamabushitake, however, Kubo Sangyo`s CEO Kubo Shōichi told us that they have received a huge amount of customer feedback related to its effects on their brain health. For example, they have received many emails from both elderly individuals thanking them for the effects they felt it has had on their neurological health, as well as from younger consumers. In fact, Mr. Kubo told me that they received so many emails from students thanking them for helping them get into university (after the gruelling entrance exam period at the beginning of the year), that they started an `exam season campaign`, offering reduced prices during the period.

In this way, Kubo Sangyo has found a niche in both production and marketing, utilising recent research on functional mushrooms to find success with supplements

https://www.yamabusitake.com/index.htm