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About Endoca
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From humble beginnings to a global mission – we grow, harvest, and craft hemp with care for people and planet.
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CBD is nature’s way to restore balance, calm, and overall well-being – naturally and without the high.
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At a glance
What these two actually are
Lion’s mane could be bought at a greengrocer. Hericium erinaceus grows on dead hardwood, is raised commercially on sawdust blocks, and has been a kitchen mushroom for centuries. Cordyceps is a genus of insect-parasitising fungi whose best known member has never been farmed as a fruiting body. The 2007 phylogenetic revision of the genus moved the caterpillar fungus into Ophiocordyceps, so a pack reading Cordyceps sinensis carries a name superseded nearly twenty years ago.
Two materials reach the market under the cordyceps heading. One is a cultivated Cordyceps militaris fruiting body, a genuine mushroom that does contain cordycepin. The other is Cs-4, a liquid fermentation of Paecilomyces hepiali Chen, grown as mycelium and dried. Both published exercise trials used Cs-4. Neither tested a militaris fruiting body, and militaris is what much of the current market sells.
Our own pack sits inside that ambiguity. The Endoca Cordyceps Mushroom Extract ingredient line reads organic cordyceps mushroom extract and stops. With no species and no part used printed, a reader cannot tell which of the two materials is in the capsule, and we would rather write that down than leave it implied.
Beta-glucans, and why the number on the label may not mean what you think
A polysaccharide figure can be mostly cereal. Mycelium and fermentation biomass are raised on or in a starch-rich substrate, and McCleary and Draga found that in mycelial products the bulk of the grain starch stays intact and becomes by far the major glucan in the finished goods. A crude polysaccharide assay counts it as fungal. The beta-glucan method does not, because it releases total glucan with acid, measures alpha-glucan on its own, and reports the remainder.
Which makes alpha-glucan the diagnostic figure rather than a footnote. A true fruiting body holds very little: across 39 screened species, turkey tail read 0.41 g alpha-glucan per 100 g dry matter against 60.79 g beta-glucan, and maitake 5.04 g against 25.99 g. A pack quoting a large polysaccharide percentage with no alpha-glucan figure beside it is holding back the number that would settle it.
Solvent then separates these two. Cordyceps is the simpler case: beta-glucans, adenosine and cordycepin are all water soluble, so hot water alone is a defensible process. Lion’s mane is not simple, since hot water lifts the glucans and leaves the hericenones in the marc. The extraction method deserves a line on the pack beside any figure.
What the human evidence shows
The same Cs-4 material gave opposite readings, and what differed was the participants rather than the fungus: untrained adults over 50 against trained cyclists. Neither trial used the species most capsules now hold. Lion’s mane sits slightly ahead on volume of data alone.
What people get wrong
Choosing between them
These two are not substitutes, so pick by the question you need answered. For lion’s mane the question is fruiting body or mycelium, because the hericenones sit in one and the erinacines in the other, and a water extract carries neither family. For cordyceps the question is which organism: cultivated Cordyceps militaris, or the Cs-4 ferment that both exercise trials actually used. Then ask either seller for an alpha-glucan figure next to the beta-glucan figure, since that pair is what separates fungus from substrate. A seller who will not answer has answered.
Legal status and safety
No health claim for lion’s mane or for cordyceps is authorised under Regulation (EC) 1924/2006, so nobody may state or imply that either acts on the body. Every figure on this page is a measurement or a published trial result.
Then there is the prior question of whether the material may be sold as a food. Under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 as retained in UK law, an ingredient needs a history of significant human consumption before 15 May 1997, or it needs authorisation first.
Extract powder from the Hericium erinaceus fruiting body was found not novel, while the dehydrated mycelium of the same species was assessed as a novel food in October 2019. Cordyceps militaris went further: mycelium and fruiting body were both entered in the novel food status catalogue in 2025 as novel, the species having had no significant human consumption before the 1997 cut-off.
On safety, the concern attaches to the wild material. High arsenic residues in wild Ophiocordyceps sinensis are recognised, and a 2019 speciation study found most of that arsenic in an unidentified form which may convert to free inorganic arsenic.
How Endoca tests for this
The mushroom range is tested for identity and for the contaminants that matter, heavy metals, pesticides and microbes, and heavy metal screening is exactly the right test for any cordyceps material. What those certificates do not yet state is a beta-glucan value reported apart from alpha-glucan, and the cordyceps ingredient line still names neither species nor part used. Both are ours to correct. Hemp certificates have come from our own farm, our own land and our own extraction since 2010.
Frequently asked questions
Usually not. Wild Ophiocordyceps sinensis grows on caterpillars on the Tibetan plateau and is gathered by hand, never farmed as a fruiting body. Commercial capsules hold cultivated Cordyceps militaris or Cs-4, a fermented mycelial biomass of Paecilomyces hepiali Chen, which is a different organism.
It depends which cordyceps. Cordyceps militaris mycelium and fruiting body were both entered as novel in 2025, so that species needs authorisation before sale. The retained rules turn on the same test, significant human consumption before 15 May 1997, which militaris did not meet.
Lion’s mane, by a small margin, and on quantity rather than quality. There is one positive 16 week trial in 30 adults and one null acute trial in 18. Cordyceps has two Cs-4 exercise trials that disagree, one positive in older adults, one negative in cyclists.
Four things: which species it is, which part was used, a beta-glucan figure, and an alpha-glucan figure next to it. That pair matters because fermentation biomass carries substrate starch, and McCleary and Draga found starch is usually the major glucan in mycelial material.
References
Sung GH, Hywel-Jones NL, Sung JM, Luangsa-Ard JJ, Shrestha B, Spatafora JW. Phylogenetic classification of Cordyceps and the clavicipitaceous fungi. Stud Mycol. 2007;57:5-59.
Chen S, Li Z, Krochmal R, Abrazado M, Kim W, Cooper CB. Effect of Cs-4 (Cordyceps sinensis) on exercise performance in healthy older subjects: a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. J Altern Complement Med. 2010;16(5):585-590.
Parcell AC, Smith JM, Schulthies SS, Myrer JW, Fellingham G. Cordyceps sinensis (CordyMax Cs-4) supplementation does not improve endurance exercise performance. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2004;14(2):236-242.
Yao L, Xu Q, Xu Y, et al. Paecilomyces hepiali Chen (Cs-4) polysaccharides ameliorate chronic liver fibrosis in vivo and in vitro. J Ethnopharmacol. 2026;359:121066.
Singpoonga N, Rittiron R, Seang-On B, Chaiprasart P, Bantadjan Y. Determination of adenosine and cordycepin concentrations in Cordyceps militaris fruiting bodies using near-infrared spectroscopy. ACS Omega. 2020;5(42):27235-27244.
Li Y, Liu Y, Han X, Jin H, Ma S. Arsenic species in Cordyceps sinensis and its potential health risks. Front Pharmacol. 2019;10:1471.
Mori K, Inatomi S, Ouchi K, Azumi Y, Tuchida T. Improving effects of the mushroom Yamabushitake (Hericium erinaceus) on mild cognitive impairment: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Phytother Res. 2009;23(3):367-372.
Surendran G, Saye J, Binti Mohd Jalil S, et al. Acute effects of a standardised extract of Hericium erinaceus (lion’s mane mushroom) on cognition and mood in healthy younger adults: a double-blind randomised placebo-controlled study. Front Nutr. 2025;12:1405796.
Docherty S, Doughty FL, Smith EF. The acute and chronic effects of lion’s mane mushroom supplementation on cognitive function, stress and mood in young adults: a double-blind, parallel groups, pilot study. Nutrients. 2023;15(22):4842.
McCleary BV, Draga A. Measurement of beta-glucan in mushrooms and mycelial products. J AOAC Int. 2016;99(2):364-373.
Novel food status catalogue entry POL-NF-09242: Cordyceps militaris (L.) mycelium and fruiting body, 2025; and status consultations on Hericium erinaceus fruiting body extract powder and dehydrated mycelium powder.
Last reviewed 1 October 2026.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.