Evening calm
Reishi
Ganoderma lucidum
Reishi is a hard, glossy shelf mushroom, bitter enough on its own that nobody eats it for pleasure. It has centuries of traditional use behind it and, honestly, a thinner modern evidence base than its reputation suggests, so both sides of that are on this page.
What the research shows
Summaries below describe what each study measured and reported. None of them used a Mello product, and none of them is a claim about what Mello will do for you.
Randomised human trial
Ganoderma lucidum (Lingzhi): biomarker responses in a controlled human supplementation study
Wachtel-Galor S and colleagues. British Journal of Nutrition, 2004.
View on PubMed (opens in a new tab)A double blind, placebo controlled cross-over study in 18 healthy adults aged 22 to 52, taking 1.44 g of Lingzhi a day for four weeks. Across a wide panel of blood and urine markers the researchers found no significant change, with a slight trend towards lower lipids and an increase in antioxidant capacity in urine. They also found no sign of liver, kidney or DNA toxicity, which is the part of this study we think is most worth knowing.
Randomised clinical trial
A randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of a Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide extract
Tang W and colleagues. Journal of Medicinal Food, 2005.
View on PubMed (opens in a new tab)A clinical trial in 132 adults being treated for persistent fatigue and low wellbeing, given a Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide extract or placebo for eight weeks. Self reported fatigue scores fell by 28.3 per cent from baseline in the extract group against 20.1 per cent on placebo, and sense of wellbeing rose by 38.7 per cent against 29.7 per cent. This was a clinical population taking a concentrated extract, which is a long way from a cup of coffee.
How it shows up in Mello
Reishi is one of the six mushrooms in the extract blend listed on the pack. Bitter on its own, it is balanced within the blend rather than dominant, and it sits behind the roast or the matcha rather than on top of it. The studies below used Reishi preparations that differ from ours in dose and form, so read them as background on the ingredient rather than as results you should expect from Mello.