Birken Tree - Chaga Tincture

The Chaga, Inonotus Obliquus, is a fungus growing on living Birch trees, but can also sometimes be found on other trees like Beech, Oak and Alder.
It is easily recognized as it looks like a charcoal mass growing on the trunk of the tree. It concentrates all the goodness of the birch tree for a potent superfood.

We harvest the chaga in little quantities in Perthshire, as only a little is necessary to make the tincture. The fungus is dried then choped and simmered in hot water until it reduced. Then put in a bottle with alcohol, it will soak for a month.
The chaga is often used as a tea but we found out that the tincture is the best way to get a potent effect from the fungus as some components are not soluble in water, and it is a lot more sustainable as well.

The dropper is easy to use. Put 5-10 drops under your tongue, 2-3 times a day. One dropper lasts around a month.

Chaga mushrooms are rich in a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, including, just to cite a few:

B-complex vitamins
vitamin D
potassium
rubidium
cesium
amino acids
fiber
copper
selenium
zinc
iron
manganese
magnesium
calcium
Chaga has a history of use in traditional medicine in Russia, Poland and most of the Baltic countries, in a variety of ailments ranging from stomach diseases to tumors. In the recent years, numerous independent studies have focused on elucidating the biological effects of chaga preparations.
The following functions of I. obliquus extracts and preparations have been reported in the literature: antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and anticancer.

The observed effects have been attributed to a wide range of functional components present in this species, including: phenolics, terpenoids, peptides, polysaccharides, b-glucan, and inotodiol.

More research on our website www.birkentree.co.uk