The post-antibiotic world of Western Medicine is now beginning to study, evaluate, and test Chaga for the active compounds underlying its historically understood medicinal benefits. As with many other natural medicinal foods and herbs, the modern medical and scientific community is coming to understand that whole supplements like Chaga, offer a complex balance of active compounds, delivery of minerals, and co-factors more balanced to sustaining a healthy immune balance than isolated compounds synthesized from these natural products.

For the past 40 years, 1,600 modern scientific studies have demonstrated and proven the pharmacological effects of medicinal mushrooms for the immune, hormonal and central nervous system.

The primary active compounds discovered in Siberian Chaga are a variety of triterpenes and sterols including Lanosterol, Ergosterol, Inotodiols, Saponins, and Polysaccharides. Modern research is now beginning to demonstrate that these compounds are effective for human maladies treated by folk medicine practitioners with natural products for millenia, without toxic side-effects. Scientific research regarding the effects of Chaga have centered around its long history of use in Asia as an immune system booster, and to reducing the effects of aging.

There is now scientific research to support the claims of the folk medicinal uses. The most recent and definitive analytical work on Chaga, and arguably, the most well known Western research conducted on the use of Chaga has been performed by Dr. Kirsti Kahlos and her team at School of Pharmacology, at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Dr. Kahlos' team conducted studies validating the immune-modulating impact of Lanosterol-linked triterpenes effective against influenza viral strains and for anti-tumor applications in cell cultures.  Of those, the most active was specified as inotodiol. Institutional studies at the University of Tokyo, Japan have determined effectiveness of Inotodiols in the destruction of certain cancerous carcinosarcomas and mammary adenocarcinomas in cell cultures.  They also found the compound betulin. The betulin is actually a compound from the birch tree that the Chaga fungus absorbs and concentrates.  This converts into betulinic acid which has demonstrated cytotoxic effects against a number of tumor cell lines.  Other researchers have found active polysaccharides, also commonly found in most medicinal mushrooms such as a mitake and shiitake. Those polysaccharides are known to stimulate the immune system. Dr. Kahlos and other researches have found significant anti-tumor activity against specific cell lines and against specific influenza viruses.

The Melanin complex produced by the Chaga mushroom demonstrates high antioxidant and genoprotective effects. It is also a powerful immune stimulant, activating the first line of defense in the immune gastrointestinal tract.  The polysaccharide beta-glucan, also present in Chaga, is proven to be an effective immune modulator by triggering immune system response. Chaga has shown anti-inflammatory activity which it is believed could be responsible for some of its benefits to the stomach and bowels. Scientific research has confirmed some of the primary folk uses of Chaga and it's mystical following over the years as it has been referred to in Asia as "the Mushroom of Immortality".

Siberian Chaga ongoing studies include:

- Tumor research in various cell lines 
- HIV and Immune compromised diseases
- Gastrointestinal imbalances 
- Cardiovascular Diseases 
- Lung Disorders
- Natural Antioxidant levels 

- Genoprotective Effects

From the research carried out in Finland by researchers at the School of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, the most active compound, inotodiol, has shown activity against influenza viruses A and B, and various cancer cells. Studies in Japan have also confirmed antiviral activity, (inhibition of the protease enzyme of HIV-1).

Chaga and HIV Research

The very compound that makes the birch "shine bright white" which is transferred to the Chaga mushroom, shows promise to aid many serious medical conditions.  Betulin, a powdery substance in the outer bark of the birch tree and in concentration in Chaga, has been shown to help wounds heal faster and reduce inflammation. Chaga contains high amounts of betulinic acid, which is being investigated as a treatment for melanoma and other serious diseases.

During the last twenty years, the department of pharmacognosy and botany of Irkutsk State Medical University deals with the study of the effects of Betulin on the vital activity of man.

"Scientists Tulchinskaya and Yurgelaytis report, that the air surrounding birch forests contain 400 microbes per cubic meter, which is lower than the existing standard for the operating rooms in hospitals. Especially successfully (in 3-10 min) the bactericides of white part of birch bark manage to eliminate pathogens of typhoid fever, tuberculosis and diphtheria. Unique therapeutic properties are given to betulin - a substance from the class of triterpenoids.  

The stability to harmful microflora white part of birch bark is obliged precisely to betulin. The studies, carried out during recent years, showed that betulin possesses valuable pharmacological properties: antioxidant, hepatoprotective, gepatoprotektornym, antiviral, immunomodulation, antibacterial, antipyretic, bile-expelling. Betulinic acid has been explored as a potential treatment for skin cancer for more than a decade. Betulin, which is highly concentrated in Chaga, its derivatives and other birch bark compounds also are being tested for effectiveness in treating HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can cause severe cold-like symptoms and pneumonia. Examinations conducted, in Russian institute of pharmacology, showed that the complex of substances forming part of white part of birch bark and contained in Chaga possess high antimutagenic activity, capable of lowering the number of mutations in the chromosomes and the genes, the frequency of the appearance of hereditary changes in the organism.

The antimutagenic action of the substances is connected with their capability for the suppression of free-radical oxidation, and their ability to induce the production of interferons, which, as its known, positively influence the processes of reparation of DNA. The substances also contribute to the decrease of hypoxia and to increase of the stability of organism to the oxygen deficiency, being antihypoxant correcting the metabolism of cells.

All information contained on this website is based on research and testing to date and is for informational and educational purposes and is not intended to make any unsupported medical claim or the claim that any product is intended to cure or prevent any disease. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Any serious health concern should be treated by a qualified medical practitioner. Pregnant or nursing mothers should consult their physician prior to using any nutritional supplement.