I found some birch polypore mushrooms in the local woods and decided to do an experiement. The mushrooms were dried and then put into big jars – into which 99% IPA was added, just enough to cover the mushroom mass. This preparation was then left for 14 days or so, mixing the contents every day or so.

The IPA was filtered to remove impurities and then evaporated slowly. The picture bellow is the result of the first pull with IPA on 50g of dried Fomitopsis betulina mushrooms.

My idea is to then dissolve the extracted material with a solution of ethanol and water (1:1 ratio).The point of using IPA is that it is much cheaper in my country then ethanol. So, I can do the extraction with IPA and dissolve into a small amount of aformentioned solution for volumetric dosing – like a tincture.

Any idea of what you got? 99% IPA may extract differently than ethanol.

I tried a 99% IPA extraction on dry cubensis with vitamin C and the resultting residue was not active. Interestingly, it was pink and quite clean/flaky.

Yes, I'm aware that 99% IPA may extract differently than ethanol and to be honest I have no idea what I've got in the residue. On the page 8 in the attached file you can find the potential compounds to be found in the residue. I may find a lab that will find out for me what is in there, it mostly depends on the cost.

Makes sense.

You may also know this already: we are blessed here at the Nexus with two analytical services from Endlessness and Benzyme. These are free or have a minimal fee. Would be interesting to see what medicines you got from an IPA extract. You can check with them to see if they would be interested in looking into your extract.

My interest in particular is due to the potential unwanted presence of ethyl carbamate in genral for mushroom ethanol extracts. I got a P. Cubensis sample out to check for that.

Loveall, thank you for this information. I was not aware of that before. This community really surprises me more and more. Respect.

Thank you also for pointing out ethyl carbamate. New information for me again.

Glad if it helped. Regarding ethyl carbamate, take that with a grain of salt, it's just something to look into, probably will turn out to be a non issue.

A small update.

The IPA 99% extract which is in the picture is not soluble in water.

That means that IPA 99% extracts compounds that a simple tea/decoction of this medicinal mushroom will not. That's a good thing to know if one wants to get as much as possible from the mushrooms.

I suggest you have the extractions you have isolated in the TEK assayed if possible and contact Dr. Paul Stamets if the results warrant it. He is highly approachable and would probably be very interested in your findings.