Trametes versicolor often called the "turkey tail, found virtually anywhere there are dead hardwood logs and stumps to decompose--and, occasionally, on conifer wood too. Its cap colors are extremely variable, but tend to stay in the buff, brown, cinnamon, and reddish brown range. The mushrooms are strikingly "zonate" with sharply contrasting concentric zones of color, and the surface of the cap is finely fuzzy or velvety. Often the zones represent contrasts in texture as well as color, so that fuzzy zones alternate with smoother ones. [
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Scientific Name(s): Coriolus versicolor L. ex Fr. Quel. Family: Polyporaceae
Common Name(s): Cloud mushroom , PSK , PSP , yun zhi , polysaccharide krestin , turkey tail
Identifying
1) Is the pore surface a real pore surface? Like, can you see actual pores?
Yes: Continue.
No: See Stereum ostrea and other crust fungi.
2) Squint real hard. Would you say there are about 1-3 pores per millimeter (which would make them fairly easy to see), or about 3-8 pores per millimeter (which would make them very tiny)?
3-8 per mm: Continue.
1-3 per mm: See several other species of Trametes.
3) Is the cap conspicuously fuzzy, velvety, or finely hairy (use a magnifying glass or rub it with your thumb)?
Yes: Continue.
No: See several other species of Trametes.
4) Is the fresh cap whitish to grayish?
Yes: See Trametes hirsuta.
No: Continue.
5) Does the cap lack starkly contrasting color zones (are the zones merely textural, or do they represent subtle shades of the same color)?
Yes: See Trametes pubescens.
No: Continue.
6) Is the fresh mushroom rigid and hard, or thin and flexible?
Rigid and hard: See Trametes ochracea.
Thin and flexible: Totally True Turkey Tail.
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Benefits
Turkey tail has antioxidant activity, boosts immune response, and is considered an adjunctive treatment in cancer chemotherapy.
Clinical research with PSK began around 1970 and has focused on its immunotherapeutic efficacy in stomach, colorectal, esophageal, nasopharyngeal, lung, and breast cancers. Overall, the polysaccharides in PSK reportedly increase gamma-interferon production, interleukin-2 production, and T-cell proliferation, therefore improving immune system functioning. Other studies have focused on the antimicrobial, antiviral, and antioxidant properties of PSK.
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Science is showing that Turkey Tail mushroom holds an arsenal of cancer-blasting compounds. Two polysaccharide complexes in Turkey Tail are getting a great deal of scientific attention, PSK (or "Kreskin") and PSP, making it the most extensively researched of all medicinal mushrooms with large scale clinical trials.
In addition to breast cancer, Turkey Tail has been found to hold promise for other cancers, including stomach, colorectal, lung, esophageal, nasopharyngeal, cervical, and uterine. PSP has been shown to significantly enhance immune status in 70 to 97 percent of cancer patients. Turkey tail is also being used to treat many different infections, including aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, E. coli, HIV, Herpes, and streptococcus pneumonia, and is hepatoprotective. It may also be useful for CFIDS.
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Turkey tail targets chronic illnesses, which include many types of cancers. Studies have even shown that turkey tail can regenerate damaged bone marrow. As well as treating human cancers, it is also used in veterinary medicine to treat canine cancer. Strongly antioxidant, turkey tail strengthens the immune system, increases energy, and delivers pain relief with no ill side effects. It also reduces phlegm, combats respiratory ailments, poor digestion, urinary infections, inflammation, liver ailments, and hepatitis B.
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Preparation
I mix turkey tails and reishi and they do well as a hot water extract, I just let them simmer a good long time (couple hours). If we eat the whole fruit we grind and cap it up (2-3 "00" capsules 2-3 times/day), but it equals about a fat teaspoon 2-3 times/day. 3x3 for infections, illness and 2x2 for regular use...
I make my extracts by swimming the mushies in vodka for a week, saving off the top clear for a preservative and reducing the rest in hot water (crockpot) for about 24 hours. I add the extra vodka in small amounts along the way to evaporate it and keep the goodies, I only save about 10% worth for preservative. We have to keep them in the fridge when made this way but they last at least 3 years that we know of.
I use about a pound of each mushroom per gallon in a two mushroom extract. The dose is about 4cc for 150lb person with the extract.
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Dry your turkey tails pore side up in the direct sunlight for maximum Vit. D - provitamin D2 occurring as ergosterol - Stamets demonstrated that drying the vit D mushrooms this way exponentially increased Vit. D. We chop in a coffee grinder and sift through a wire mesh - the fine goes to caps and the coarse goes to extract.
Turkey tails dry and store very well as do all the woodeater mushrooms. If I were making a single mushroom extract I would use at least a pound/gal if not 1.5lb - you want a good, potent item. Fine chopping them as with a coffee grinder is a lot less messy than powder and powdering is not needed owing to the length of the extraction time.
If you let your crockpot evap down to 3/4 gallon or less then you have room for a second "wash" of your mushrooms which is just pouring off the first extract, adding some fresh water to the mushrooms and simmering that 30 minutes so you get more out of the mushrooms, then strain and combine.
During the crockpot phase the heavier water is forcing the vodka out and the heat is evaporating it. You want to replace volume with water but not too much as you want it reduced as close to the finishing volume as possible. You can run it on high to heat up but should turn it down to low and run it there for the extraction.
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n a big stock pot, add:
- a large handful of nettles
- a large handful of fresh dandelion roots, leaves & flowers
- fresh chopped blackberry leaves
- fresh chopped yellow dock root
- a sprig of young horsetail
- a handful of cleavers
- good pinch of dried calendula blossoms
- a bit of kelp, nori (or whatever seaweed you have around)
- pinch of hawthorn berries (and leaves/flowers if you have them)
- good 4-fingered pinch of sliced dry or fresh Turkey Tail mushrooms
Cook on medium until the brew reaches a light boil. Simmer for several hours. I usually let the liquid reduce by half. Strain it–you’ll have this dark, bitter liquid. Add black berry juice, molasses & honey until it’s sweet enough for you. I like to add a little good-quality brandy to help preserve it. Keep it in the fridge, but consume it within 3 months. I take a few tablespoons daily.
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The usual dose is 2 to 3 grams of dried, powdered turkey tail mushrooms three times per day, either mixed into food or put into capsules.
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Dosage:
Tea: Up to 20 g. of mushroom in tea 3x daily.
Tonic: 1 cube twice daily.
Tincture: 1 tsp. twice daily.
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Tincturing Medicinal Mushrooms: The Double Extraction Process
Mushroom tinctures are made using a double-extraction technique. First, the alcohol extracts the constituents that are not soluble in water, like sterols & terpenes. After the mushrooms have been extracted in alcohol, it goes through a hot water extraction or decoction process to extract the beta-glucans, proteoglycans, and other immune-supporting polysaccharides.
The below steps outline the double extraction process using the folk method of tincturing.
Part 1: Alcohol extraction
Break the fruitbodies up into the smallest pieces possible. This makes for a larger surface area and thorough extraction. It’s easier to do this while they’re still fresh before drying.
- Fill a quart or half-gallon canning jar halfway with the dried mushroom.
- Add the vodka, filling the jar to the top. Label it!
- Cap the jar and keep it in a warm, dark place. Agitate daily.
- After about a month, strain.
Part 2: Hot water extraction
- Take the alcohol-soaked mushroom pieces that are left over after straining (called the marc) and put them in a pot. Cover them with water.
- Simmer for 2 hours. The water will evaporate throughout this time.
- Allow the tea to cool before you strain it. Discard all the solids but save the water.
- Add this water to an equal amount of the alcohol extract. This gives you an extract that’s 25% alcohol, as the vodka was 100 proof to begin with (50% water/50% alcohol).
You may need to do some measuring before you boil the water to make sure you have enough. Gauge the amount of liquid used in your first alcohol tincture and boil at least triple that amount of water for the hot water extraction. It may seem like a lot but it will reduce (you can always keep boiling if it doesn’t).
Suggested use varies depending on the size of the person and the strength of the tincture. A good standard amount is 1/2 of a teaspoon taken 2–3x a day. It should keep for about 2 years. And as always, store in a cool place in dark-colored bottles away from direct sunlight.
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