Lingzhi, also known as Reishi is the ancient "mushroom of immortality," revered for over 2,000 years. Uncertainty exists about which Ganoderma species was most widely utilized as Lingzhi mushroom in ancient times, and likely a few different common species were considered interchangeable. However, in the most famous book of herbal medicine in China, the Bencao Gangmu (1578), a number of different lingzhi-like mushrooms were used for different purposes and defined by color. No exact current species can be attached to these ancient Lingzhi for certain, but according to Dai et a