Humans have been consuming mushrooms for many thousands of years for medicinal purposes as well as nutrition as evidenced by The Red Lady of El Mirón living on the Iberian peninsular over 18,700 years ago.
Modern Technology discovers Ancient Fungi
According to an international research team led by Robert Power of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has now explored diet in the period through dental calculus analysis on Magdalenian individuals found at El Mirón Cave in Cantabria, Spain. The researchers found that Upper Palaeolithic individuals used a variety of plant foods and mushrooms, in addition to other food sources.
Robert Power, a PhD candidate in the Max Planck Research Group on Plant Foods in Hominin Dietary Ecology, and his colleagues took dental calculus samples from Magdalenian individuals found at El Mirón Cave in Cantabria, Spain.
Using optical and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy they detected a diverse assemblage of microremains from the dental calculus. These microremains from plant, fungal, animal and mineral sources provide some indication of Magdalenian diet. “These types of microremains show that the individuals at El Mirón consumed a variety of plants from different environments, as well as other foods, including possibly bolete mushrooms”, says Robert Power.
Fungi and Mushroom use in PreHistory.
This research published in 2015 significantly predates the previously oldest confirmed usage of Fungi, which was evidenced when “Ötzi”, after the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian–Italian border, died around 5,300 years ago, was discovered in 1991 by two German tourists.
Among Ötzi’s possessions were berries, two birch bark baskets, and two species of polypore mushrooms with leather strings through them. One of these, the birch fungus, is known to have anthelmintic properties, and was likely used to treat used for medicinal purposes as described in the Lancet. Piptoporus betulinus also contains oils that are toxic to metazoans and have antiobiotic properties, acting against mycobacteria.
The use of Mushrooms for non nutritional use has continued for millennia, and today you can get Mushrooms and Mushroom products for a variety or effects, whether that is to stimulate and excite your taste buds, to alleviate symptoms or Illnesses, or even to proactively manage or improve specific elements of your health.
We at MycoUmami aim to continue access to fungi for both nutritional and health benefits through gourmet mushrooms with considerable health benefits through commonly available and rarer mushrooms such as Oyster, Shittake, Maittake, Piopinni, Lions Mane mushrooms and others.
We also grow and supply mushroom such as Reishi that have significant health benefits but are unsuitable for gourmet use