Updated
Agarikon
A long-lived conk on old-growth larch and Douglas fir, now rare across much of its range. Named in Dioscorides; the antiviral work on it is laboratory-stage.
Repeated trials
Where it stands: 2 registered trials in people, all of which have reported; 1 randomised trial, published in 2026.
What it is taken for
One tile per use. The line under each is how far the evidence for that use actually got, counted rather than argued.
What it has been tried for, and how far that has got
One row per use. The label is counted rather than argued — it is set by how many randomised trials and posted results exist for that use, and nothing else. How that is worked out.
| Use | How far it has got | Trials | With a result | Randomised, published | Reviews | Commonly taken for it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Viral infection | Repeated trials | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | yes |
| Immune function | Laboratory work | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | yes |
| Lungs and breathing | Laboratory work | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | yes |
Commonly taken for immune function, lungs and breathing. The work there is still laboratory and animal work — often a great deal of it — and the step into a trial in people has not been taken yet.
The doses the protocols actually specify
Taken verbatim from the intervention description each trial filed. These are not recommendations and they are not comparable to each other: some are a whole-mushroom powder, some a purified fraction.
| Dose as filed | Study | Condition | People |
|---|---|---|---|
8 capsule | RCT of Fomitopsis Officinalis and Trametes Versicolor to Treat COVID-19 | COVID-19 | 54 |
Every registered study that names it
From ClinicalTrials.gov, filtered to studies that name Fomitopsis officinalis or a synonym in the title, summary or intervention. Studies that have posted results come first.
| Register | Study | Condition | People | Status | Result posted | Dose in the protocol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCT04951336 | RCT of Mushroom Based Natural Product to Enhance Immune Response to COVID-19 Vaccination | COVID-19 Vaccination | 90 | Completed | yes | — |
| NCT04667247 | RCT of Fomitopsis Officinalis and Trametes Versicolor to Treat COVID-19 | COVID-19 | 54 | Completed | yes | 8 capsule |
The compounds the research names
Formula and mass from PubChem. Naming a compound is not a claim that it does anything in a person.
C22H40O7
C30H50O
What it looks like in the field
Research-grade observations, each by a different photographer. Every one links to the record it came from.
In the kitchen
Extremely bitter — the old name 'quinine conk' is about the taste.
Not eaten. Historically powdered as a medicine; today mostly a conservation subject rather than an ingredient.
Rare across much of its range and slow to grow. Not something to harvest.
Where it has been recorded, and when it fruits
1,402 verified occurrence records with coordinates, from GBIF. This is where people have recorded it, which follows where recorders live as much as where the fungus grows — read the shape, not the ranking.
| United States | 697 | |
| Switzerland | 256 | |
| Russia | 179 | |
| Canada | 141 | |
| Austria | 51 | |
| France | 19 | |
| Poland | 18 | |
| Italy | 17 | |
| MN | 9 | |
| Slovenia | 4 | |
| China | 3 | |
| Japan | 3 |
Most records fall in Oct. Northern-hemisphere recorders dominate the dataset, so a southern population would not show here.
iNaturalist separately holds 997 research-grade observations of it.
What has been reported going wrong
No voluntary adverse-event report to the US Food and Drug Administration names a product by this name. That is an absence of reports, not a demonstration of safety: these are the products least likely to be reported on, because nobody is required to.
The newest randomised trials and reviews
Indexed in Europe PMC. Titles and journals only — follow the link to read the paper where the publisher allows it.
| Year | Study | Journal | Kind | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Polypore mushroom mycelia as an adjunct to COVID-19 vaccination: a randomized clinical trial open access | BMC Immunol | Randomised trial | 3 |