Really looking forward and “anticipating” the great vegetarian wedding banquet of an old friend of mine reminds me of my venture into Mushrooms in China. Quite an interesting experience. I had never seen Monkey Head Mushroom prior to the venture.

Monkey Head Mushroom

Copyright Monkey Head Mushroom Picture

Met this guy in a meeting and we were having a great discussion on some aspects of China. Turned up that he was suffering from cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. He was going back China and we parted ways. A few months later, he was back in my office looking much healthier. Quite surprising changes and I inquired what had happened. It turned out that he was taking the extract from the Monkey Head Mushroom. It wasn’t a normal extract, the process of extraction was patented by his parents whom I later knew were distinguished scientists working their entire life on fungi research. At that time, a relative of mine was also suffering from cancer and was dehydrating and not being able to eat or absorb any nutrients. I took some bottles for that relative and his conditions improved immediately, in that he was able to absorb the nutrients and water after taking this extract. I had it hand carried from China continually for that relative.

Seeing the actual effect, my friend and I tried to commercialized the product firstly in Singapore. The raw ingredients was grown in Mi Zhu China and the extraction done by a pharmaceutical standard China company. But it wasn’t an easy sell. We had a product but to promote a medical based product takes easily US$100 million from my calculations and experiences. We ended up trying to promote it as a food based product first. Problem now is no one really wants to pay that sort of prices for food and we can’t promote its medical benefits or we will run afoul with the law here. As the proverbial Better Mouse Trap goes…..The taste is quite ok, creamy, a bit of Campbell Mushroom soup taste but I won’t buy it as a food lor…..

He is still trying, for me I was wearing too many hats then and can’t afford the time to concentrate on the marketing aspects. I have it imported for my family consumption and that’s about it. Commercialization needs far too much efforts and funds and I am quite half-hearted and don’t really want to put in my time in this area.

Is it good? My dad had it and his diabetes blood sugar level was at optimal level. Previously it was high all along. For me, I took it a few times. Initially the churning of the stomach was quite intense. It seemed to be clearing everything from your digestive system. Feels good nearly immediately. I mean it works super fast for our digestive systems. Not sure on the rest of its medical values but the feedback from my relatives were very good.

Some history if I could recall was that the growing of Monkey Head mushroom first started when my friend’s parents’ university was helping some factories think of ways to clear agricultural byproducts. They grew Monkey Head Mushrooms on compacted byproducts and managed to decomposed these into first grade fertilizers. The next problem was that they had too much of these mushrooms, that was how the patent for the extract came about. For a normal digestive system, 5% of the nutrients of fungi based products can be absorbed into our body. By taking the extract, we are effectively absorbing 90% of the nutrients of the fungi. That helps I guess. It is a quite a pity that this friend is still struggling to find a foothold…….

Talking about veggie, thin slices of fresh Monkey Head Mushrooms cooked with a dash of oyster sauce brings out its favor real well. Not really common here in Singapore but there are some restaurants serving it. It is certainly good to take vegetarian food once in a while, problem is the quantum of time. My once in a while means once in every life time…….