While this claim is widely repeated across the internet, we’ve seen no science to support it. If you’ve come across something related to this and would like us to comment on it, please send it over.
With that said, here is the most up-to-date insight we have on this topic. Medicinal mushrooms are commonly referenced to have better bioavailability and absorption when taken in combination with Vitamin C.
In a literature review, a lot of the popular references cite a few papers being recycled in forums and blogs.
The first is study is an in-vitro human prostate cell study, showing the possible potentiating effects vitamin C has with a Maitake standardized extract (1). This study does show an increase in cytotoxic cell death in cell culture studies. However, the translation to human studies has yet to be proven. The second in-vitro study used a maitake extract combined with Vitamin C. The results showed synergistic effects resulting in apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cells (atypical liver cells) (4). A third cell study showed an increase in apoptosis (cancer cell death) using maitake and vitamin C. The study showed a possible synergy here with vitamin C and medicinal mushroom actions (3). A final renal cell carcinoma in-vitro study showed synergy to induce apoptosis between a maitake extract and Vitamin C (5).
A human study showed no increase in bioavailability of triterpenoids found in reishi by adding 2.5 grams of vitamin C to the dosing schedule. This study unlike the cell studies was a randomized human trial with 12 participants (2).
There are quite a few cell studies showing the synergy of medicinal mushroom extracts with Vitamin C to induce apoptosis. One human study shows no increased bioavailability or absorption of Vitamin C. Based on the current evidence Vitamin C seems to have some positive impacts on cell study outcomes but has no human data to support this.
This is not to deny the benefits adequate Vitamin C consumption has on the body which may account for some of the positive cell data.
References
- Fullerton, S. A., Samadi, A. A., Tortorelis, D. G., Choudhury, M. S., Mallouh, C., Tazaki, H., & Konno, S. (2000). Induction of apoptosis in human prostatic cancer cells with beta-glucan (Maitake mushroom polysaccharide). Molecular urology, 4(1), 7–13.
- Tawasri, P., Ampasavate, C., Tharatha, S., Chiranthanut, N., & Teekachunhatean, S. (2016). Effect of Oral Coadministration of Ascorbic Acid with Ling Zhi Preparation on Pharmacokinetics of Ganoderic Acid A in Healthy Male Subjects: A Randomized Crossover Study. BioMed research international, 2016, 2819862. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/2819862
- Duan, L., Wu, X. L., Zhao, F., Zeng, R., & Yang, K. H. (2017). Induction Effect to Apoptosis by Maitake Polysaccharide: Synergistic Effect of Its Combination With Vitamin C in Neuroglioma Cell. Journal of evidence-based complementary & alternative medicine, 22(4), 667–674. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156587217708524
- Zhao, F., Wang, Y. F., Song, L., Jin, J. X., Zhang, Y. Q., Gan, H. Y., & Yang, K. H. (2017). Synergistic Apoptotic Effect of D-Fraction From Grifola frondosa and Vitamin C on Hepatocellular Carcinoma SMMC-7721 Cells. Integrative cancer therapies, 16(2), 205–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534735416644674
Alexander, B., Fishman, A. I., Eshghi, M., Choudhury, M., & Konno, S. (2013). Induction of cell death in renal cell carcinoma with combination of D-fraction and vitamin C. Integrative cancer therapies, 12(5), 442–448. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534735412473643