If you discover a black, cancerous mass on a birch, you may be looking at a Siberian chaga mushroom. It can also, less commonly, be found growing ash, beech, elm or hornbeam.

In Europe and Asia, chaga has been used for centuries to treat cancers of the heart and liver, digestive ailments, and tuberculosis.

The traditional use was to peel the black skin of the mushroom and then boil it into a tea. Being a compact and easily portable medicinal made it very valuable to healers throughout history.

Today’s scientific focus on chaga extract is primarily as an anti-tumor remedy. In fact, it was approved in Russia as a cancer drug already in 1955, successfully used to treat cancers of the stomach, lungs, breasts and cervix.

A 1998 study on chaga extract showed that it did inhibit growth of cervical cancer in a lab. [123] And a 1995 study reported both growth inhibition and death of melanoma cells, also in a lab (in vitro).

Additional research has shown cancer cell division to be decreased by some of the active compounds of the chaga mushroom.

Betulin is a medically active compound from the birch tree that gets concentrated in the black outer skin of the chaga mushroom, which has been found to contain 30% betulin,  whereas the inside of the chaga mushroom contains fungal lanostanes. It would therefore be suggested that chaga tea is better made from the whole mushroom, including the black skin.

Even better are chaga extracts that are made with not only the whole mushroom but also the mycelium, because the mycelium contains higher levels of medicinal proteins than the fruit body of the mushroom.

Other research has found chaga to possess powerful anti-viral properties. In 1996, two studies published results of inhibitory effects on both influenza virus  and HIV.  Considering the nature of viruses, the most likely scenario is that chaga works on viruses by enhancing the body’s own immune system, a theory confirmed by a paper published in 2002 and another in 2005. [25, 129] The same mechanism may explain the reported anti-inflammatory effect of chaga.

Alcohol extract of Siberian chaga has been shown to help balance blood sugar. It is also a powerful antioxidant.

As an amusing aside not related to human health, Siberian chaga may even be used as a tree medicine. Paul Stamets relates a story of a Quebec arborist using a chaga poultice to heal chestnut blight. Not only does it cure the tree, but the tree even becomes resistant to further infections of blight after having been treated.

Note: The statements on this page have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Never use any medicinal mushroom or herb without prior approval by medical doctor.

Dr. Rafael has worked with natural health since finishing Chiropractic College in 1996. He currently focuses on medicinal fungi in partnership with Cordyceps Reishi Extracts, LLC, an NC business offering Siberian Chaga Mushroom Extract and much more. For the scientific references to this article, go to the Chaga Extract page and click on any number indicating a reference.

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