Updated
Turkey tail
A banded bracket fungus, one of the commonest fungi in the northern hemisphere. Its extract PSK has been a licensed adjuvant cancer drug in Japan since 1977 — the only functional-mushroom preparation anywhere with that status.
Repeated trials
Where it stands: 12 registered trials in people, three of which have reported; 23 randomised trials published since 1990.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cancer, supportive and adjuvant | Repeated trials | 4 | 0 | 15 | 7 | yes |
| Viral infection | Repeated trials | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | — |
| Gut and microbiome | Repeated trials | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | yes |
| Liver | A first trial | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — |
| Immune function | Being tested now | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | yes |
| Inflammation | Being tested now | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
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.
Every registered study that names it
From ClinicalTrials.gov, filtered to studies that name Trametes versicolor 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 | — |
| NCT01414010 | Effects of Pre-, Pro- & Anti-biotics on Gut Microbiota | Human Gut Microbiota | 32 | Completed | yes | 1,200 mg, 250 mg |
| NCT04667247 | RCT of Fomitopsis Officinalis and Trametes Versicolor to Treat COVID-19 | COVID-19 | 54 | Completed | yes | 8 capsule |
| NCT01097083 | Coriolus Versicolor as Palliative Therapy Compared to Placebo in Patients With Child-Pugh C Unresectable Hepat | Carcinoma, Therapy | 20 | Terminated | — | — |
| NCT00680667 | Clinical Trial of Trametes Versicolor in Women With Breast Cancer | Breast Cancer | 11 | Completed | — | 3 g, 24 g |
| NCT04210336 | Clinical Trial to Evaluate Papilocare® Gel Efficacy Into Repairment of Cervical Lesions Caused by HPV | HPV Infection, Lesion Cervix | 200 | Completed | — | — |
| NCT04624568 | Papilocare®: Effects on Regression of Histologically Confirmed Cervical Intraepithelial Lesions 1 and Toleranc | Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions of the Cervix, Human Papill | 81 | Completed | — | — |
| NCT07195552 | Clinical Trial: Rapid Immune Modulating Effects | Immune Surveillance | 12 | Recruiting | — | — |
| NCT06450873 | Turkey Tail Mushroom for Treating Post-Menopausal Women With HER2-Negative ER-Positive Breast Cancer Undergoin | Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Carcinoma, HER2-Negative B | 40 | Recruiting | — | — |
| NCT04871412 | The Thoracic Peri-Operative Integrative Surgical Care Evaluation Trial - Stage III | Lung Cancer, Gastric Cancer | 20 | Recruiting | — | 1.5g, 3g |
| NCT05079529 | Development The Potentiality of β-1,3/1,6-D-Glucan (Polysaccharide Peptide) From Mycelia Extract of Indonesia' | Cardiometabolic Syndrome | 70 | Unknown | — | — |
| NCT07316400 | PsP Ganoderma Lucidum Supplementation and Biomarker Changes in Smokers | Oxidative Stress, Inflammation | 200 | Completed | — | 250 mg, 180 mg |
The compounds the research names
Formula and mass from PubChem. Naming a compound is not a claim that it does anything in a person.
C18H32O16
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
Almost none. It is thin, leathery and inedible as food.
Simmered for stock and then fished out, or taken as an extract. If you are eating it, you are chewing something with the texture of a shoe.
Where it has been recorded, and when it fruits
202,858 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 | 65,528 | |
| United Kingdom | 39,812 | |
| Netherlands | 17,243 | |
| Germany | 13,274 | |
| Canada | 12,227 | |
| Denmark | 10,049 | |
| Sweden | 6,456 | |
| Austria | 6,200 | |
| France | 5,962 | |
| Australia | 3,907 | |
| Norway | 3,197 | |
| Spain | 2,814 |
Most records fall in Oct. Northern-hemisphere recorders dominate the dataset, so a southern population would not show here.
iNaturalist separately holds 139,549 research-grade observations of it.
What has been reported going wrong
6 voluntary reports to the US Food and Drug Administration name a product by this mushroom's name. A report is someone saying something happened after taking something. It is not a finding that the product caused it, the FDA says so itself, and nobody knows how many people took the product without reporting anything.
| Anxiety | 1 |
| Atrial Fibrillation | 1 |
| Blood Pressure Increased | 1 |
| Delusion | 1 |
| Depersonalisation/Derealisation Disorder | 1 |
| Diarrhoea | 1 |
| Dry Mouth | 1 |
| Eczema | 1 |
| Electric Shock Sensation | 1 |
| Fatigue | 1 |
| Gastrointestinal Inflammation | 1 |
| Gastrointestinal Obstruction | 1 |
| Other Serious or Important Medical Event | 4 |
| Hospitalization | 2 |
| Other Serious Outcome | 2 |
| Life Threatening | 1 |
| Visited Emergency Room | 1 |
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.