How Products were Selected:
Products were selected to represent those commonly sold and/or available nationally in the U.S. and Canada. ConsumerLab.com purchased products on the open market through retail stores, on-line retailers or direct sales companies. Products were not accepted directly from manufacturers.
Testing Methods:
- Identification of Ganoderma lucidum fruiting bodies and mycelium by High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) (USP-40 modified).
- Quantification of fruiting body triterpenoic ganoderic acids, calculated on the dried basis as a sum of ganoderic acids A, B, C2, D, F, G, and H and ganoderenic acids B, C, and D (USP-40).
- Quantification of 1-3 beta-D-glucan and alpha glucan (AOAC 995.16 modified).
- Quantitative analyses of all products for lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).
ConsumerLab.com may modify or use other appropriate test methods if necessary to test special product formulations.
The identities of the products were not disclosed to the laboratories performing the testing.
Passing Score:*
To achieve a "Pass" in the testing, a product had to:
- The HPTLC chromatogram for a product labeled as containing fruiting bodies (including those labeled as "reishi mushroom" or as "reishi" with no description of parts) or mycelium must be consistent with the respective HPTLC profile for reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) fruiting body or mycelium.
- A fruiting body product must contain the greater of a minimum of 100% of its labeled amount of triterpenoic acids or a minimum of 0.3% total ganoderic triterpenoic acids (USP-40).
- Any type of reishi product must contain a detectable amount of 1-3 beta-D-glucan and a minimum of 100% of its labeled amount of 1-3 beta-D-glucan.
- Heavy Metals. Products must not exceed the following limits:
Lead**:- Products marketed for use by children may not exceed California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.8 mcg if the product contains more than 1,000 mg/day of calcium.
- Products with single serving weights of less than 5 grams that are not marketed for use by children, may not exceed the State of California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.4 if containing 250 to 999 mg/day of any combination of elemental calcium, magnesium and potassium or 0.8 mcg if containing 1,000 mg/day of any combination of these minerals. An additional allowance of 0.5 mcg is provided if containing 250-999 mg/day one whole herb (not extract) or 1.0 mcg if containing 1000 mg/day or more whole herb (not extract). However, total lead allowance will not exceed 2 mcg per recommended daily serving.
- Products with single serving weights of 5 grams or more which are not marketed for children may not exceed 2.5 mcg per serving nor 4.0 mcg per daily serving.
- If marketed for use by children, may not exceed 3.0 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on Canada's limit for a child weighing 75 lbs.). If not marketed for use by children, may not exceed 4.1 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on the State of California's Prop 65 limit).
- Contain less than 10 micrograms of total arsenic and no more than 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per daily serving (EPA limit and state of New Jersey limits - based on 1 liter of water).
- Contain less than 2 micrograms of mercury per daily serving (based on EPA limit for mercury in 1 liter of water).
- Meet FDA labeling requirements.
* Passing scores allow for specific margins of technical error associated with each analysis. ConsumerLab.com reserves the right to disqualify a product at any time from passing it's testing if it considers such product to display unacceptable variation, present a safety risk or to provide misleading or inaccurate label information.
** Based on State of California's Prop 65 lead limit. California requires supplements exceeding this limit to bear a warning label regarding lead.
