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Background
What each main component is reported to do
Lingzhi fruiting bodies contain polysaccharides, triterpenes, sterols, peptides, proteins, nucleosides, alkaloids and other components. Mycelium has components similar to the fruiting body but little triterpene; spore powder contains fatty acids, polysaccharides, nucleosides and triterpenes, but its triterpene content is also very low. The main effects found so far for each component are as follows:
- Polysaccharides (polysaccharide peptides)
- Immune regulation; anti-tumor; reducing damage from chemo- and radiotherapy; sedative and sleep-promoting, pain-relieving; improving learning and memory; protecting the heart and blood vessels (strengthening heart function, countering myocardial ischemia, inhibiting atherosclerosis); easing asthma and allergic inflammation; lowering blood pressure, regulating blood lipids, lowering blood sugar and reducing diabetic complications; antioxidant, slowing aging; protecting the liver; countering stomach ulcers; promoting wound healing; improving tolerance of low oxygen
- Triterpenes (ganoderic acids, etc.)
- Protecting the liver; anti-tumor; pain-relieving; antioxidant; improving learning and memory. Laboratory studies have also found: inhibiting HIV, inhibiting histamine release (related to anti-allergy effects), inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme (related to lowering blood pressure), inhibiting cholesterol synthesis, inhibiting platelet aggregation, inhibiting 5α-reductase (related to the prostate)
- Mycelium extracts
- Anti-tumor; sedative and sleep-promoting; strengthening heart function; reducing airway inflammation, easing asthma, anti-allergy; lowering blood pressure and blood lipids; protecting the liver; reducing body weight in obese mice
- Spore powder and its extracts
- Immune regulation; anti-tumor; lowering blood sugar and reducing diabetic complications; regulating blood lipids; sedative and sleep-promoting; anti-epileptic; improving learning and memory, reducing brain damage in Parkinson’s disease models; protecting the liver
- Spore oil
- Lowering blood lipids; protecting the liver; immune regulation; anti-tumor
- Immunomodulatory protein LZ-8
- Immune regulation
- Sterols
- Antioxidant, scavenging free radicals; reducing brain ischemia-reperfusion injury
- Nucleosides such as adenosine
- Inhibiting platelet aggregation; countering low oxygen
- Alkaloids
- Anti-inflammatory
Summary of composition and pharmacology researchCompiled from books and scientific reviewsHow the study was done
Summarizes published pharmacological findings by lingzhi part, extract and component. A 2025 review in Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs (中草药) likewise summarizes the pharmacological activity of lingzhi polysaccharides and triterpenes in immune regulation, liver and kidney protection, antioxidant, anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory effects, lipid regulation and blood sugar lowering.
What the researchers say
Most of these effects come from laboratory and animal studies. For findings from studies in people, see each health topic.
Source
Lin Zhibin (ed.), 灵芝从神奇到科学 [Lingzhi: From Mystery to Science], 3rd ed., Peking University Medical Press, 2018, ISBN 978-7-5659-1844-5, Ch. 3; Luo Hongjian et al., 灵芝主要活性成分药理作用及生物合成研究进展 [Advances in research on the pharmacology and biosynthesis of the main active components of lingzhi], Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs (中草药), 2025, 56(9)
Checked against the book and the review abstract Last updated: 2026-10-06