Recently, Fujian Provincial Non-Major Crop Variety Identification Committee announced the catalog of 15 non-main crop varieties approved by Fujian Province in 2022. GanoHerb S3, a new variety of Reishi mushroom applied by GanoHerb Technology (Fujian) Corporation, a subsidiary of GanoHerb Group, is among them.

Reishi mushroom is a precious traditional medicinal fungus in China, and it is included as a legal Chinese herbal medicine by the “Chinese Pharmacopoeia”. It can boost qi, quiet the spirit, strengthen healthy qi and secure the root. Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides and Ganoderma lucidum total triterpenes are the key active ingredients of Ganoderma lucidum.

GanoHerb S3, a new variety of Reishi mushroom identified by the provincial-level identification committee, was jointly cultivated by GanoHerb Technology (Fujian) Corporation and the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. It was bred by the Hanzhi No. 3 strain through space mutagenesis with the help of the spacecraft many times.

Tested by a third-party authoritative testing and certification agency, the polysaccharide content of Ganoderma lucidum and the total triterpenoid content of Ganoderma lucidum in the fruiting bodies of GanoHerb S3 are 11.11% and 53.37% higher than those of the control Hanzhi No.3, respectively; the fruiting rate and yield of GanoHerb S3 are also 5.86% and 16.68% higher than those of the control Hanzhi No.3, respectively.

Hanzhi strain is one of the varieties cultivated widely in Reishi production areas in China. After years of continuous cultivation, the strain has seriously degenerated.

In 1999, the Lan Jin Research Group of the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences carried out experiments on space mutagenesis for improvement of the Hanzhi No. 3 strain with the help of the Shenzhou spacecraft. After years of screening and experimental research, the group bred the Space Reishi S3 strain, which has the advantages of fast growth, high yield, strong stress resistance and high content of active ingredients. This strain has also become one of the first batch of Reishi “seed players” to enter space on a spacecraft in China.

▲ The GanoHerb S3 strain test base located at the source of the three rivers in the Wuyi Mountains (photo provided by GanoHerb)

In order to breed better new strains, in 2016, the Lan Jin Research Group cooperated with GanoHerb Technology (Fujian) Corporation to conduct cultivation experiments and planting technology research on the space Reishi S3 strain at GanoHerb Organic Reishi Base located at the source of the three rivers in the Wuyi Mountains. The yield of many years of multi-site experiments shows that the yield of fruiting bodies of this Reishi strain is higher than that of the control Hanzhi.

As far as traditional Chinese medicinal materials are concerned, “good medicinal materials” can only be bred with good varieties, fertile land and scientific methods. GanoHerb Reishi Base located in the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian Province, is not only a “Space Reishi Cultivation and Deep Processing Research Demonstration Base” awarded by the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences but also a base for the breeding of Reishi strains in the project of “Demonstration Research on Targeted Poverty Alleviation through Standardized Planting of High-quality Authentic Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials Produced in Fujian including Reishi Mushroom and Radix Pseudostellariae” belonging to the key project of “Research on Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine” under the National Key Research and Development Program (Project No.: 2019YFC1710500).

▲Lan Jin research group visited GanoHerb Reishi base

(photo provided by Ganoherb)

“The official recognition of the GanoHerb S3 variety means that its cultivation and production will be more standardized and it can be promoted on a large scale.” Ye Li, the founder of GanoHerb, said that the company will select and breed more fine varieties in the next step, which will continue to provide kinetic energy for the innovative development of strain resources and help the high-quality development of the Reishi industry.

Article source: Xinhua Finance