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Background
Fruiting bodies should be harvested before spores are released
Fruiting bodies should be harvested when the spores are full but not yet released, that is, just as the milky-white growth ring at the edge of the cap disappears; once all the spores are released, the fruiting body is just a woody “empty shell”.
Book on lingzhiSummarized from a published book; verifiable by title and ISBNPublished book · see title and ISBN in the sourceHow the study was done
Drawn from the chapter on lingzhi raw materials.
What the researchers say
This matches the findings of several composition studies: after a fruiting body has been releasing spores for a long time, its polysaccharide and triterpene content drops markedly.
Source
Wu Tingyao, reviewed by Hsu Rey-Shyang, 灵芝，妙不可言 [Lingzhi: Wonderful Beyond Words], People’s Medical Publishing House, 2017, ISBN 978-7-117-24242-4, Ch. 2
Checked against the book; consistent with related research Last updated: 2026-10-06
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