Long utilized by native populations for its various healthful properties, Inonotus obliquus, or chaga, is a mass of mycelium or sclerotium resembling burnt charcoal. The sterile conk grows primarily on birch trees and other hardwoods in forests throughout the northern hemisphere. Our organic chaga mushrooms can be decocted into chaga tea and incorporated into broths and soups. The antioxidant activity of polysaccharides (beta-glucans) contained in chaga help maintain cell integrity and fight free radicals. Chaga is used in traditional Russian Folk Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine to support gastrointestinal health, and as a tonic to support overall health.* Chaga is a fungus, a parasitic carpophore that looks like the charred remains of burned wood on the side of a birch tree (sometimes growing on Elm and Alder, but Birch is its favorite). It is not the fruiting body of the fungus, but a sclerotia or mass of mycelium. The parasite enters the tree through a 'wound' in the bark of a mature tree. This information is for education purposes, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.