AHARA · Ingredient supply · Rockville, Maryland

Water-Based Extract Chemistry and Nanofiber Evidence

Liquid, water-based mushroom extracts for ingredient-consuming manufacturers and formulators. No ethanol or methanol used in extraction.

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1 kg minimum · Raw water extract or 55% glycerin blend · Lead time and handling confirmed for your order

A scientific record a formulation team can examine

Both AHARA Reishi and Lion’s Mane extracts contain fruiting body and mycelium, and no tissue ratio is specified. Every analytical record we send is matched to the current ingredient identity and lot.

AHARA is a biotech company, and the ingredient is built that way: water-based processing, independent metabolomic characterization and original microscopy of naturally occurring nanofiber structures. The analytical source records are part of the sourcing conversation, not a brochure line.

Published, open and citable

The characterization is not a brochure claim. It is a published dataset with its own DOI, released under CC BY 4.0, alongside a companion preprint. Your quality team can download the data, cite the DOI in your own specification file and check the chemistry before sending us a single email.

  • Dataset. 10.5281/zenodo.21905399. “Comparative dual-platform metabolomic dataset of commercial Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) and Hericium erinaceus (Lion’s Mane) extracts”, version 1.0.0, published 12 August 2026 on Zenodo under CC BY 4.0.
  • Preprint. 10.26434/chemrxiv.15007427/v1. “Comparative Dual-Platform Metabolomic Characterization of Commercial Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) and Hericium erinaceus (Lion’s Mane) Extracts”, Malghan, Malghan and Grimes, posted 13 August 2026 on ChemRxiv.
  • Laboratory. Human Metabolome Technologies, an accredited analytical laboratory. Polar and ionic metabolites by CE-FTMS, lipophilic metabolites by LC-MS/MS.

The raw data behind the characterization is public, versioned and downloadable. Nothing in it rests on our description of it.

Independent metabolomics

The two panels are complementary rather than duplicated, which is how the work names and maps over 2,000 metabolites to KEGG pathways. Pathway mapping, not a headline count, is what lets a formulation team reason about what the ingredient actually contains.

Each result is reported with its confidence level and method, so an annotation, a confirmed identity and a quantified concentration are never presented as the same finding.

Review the white paper (PDF) · Download the dataset on Zenodo · Read the preprint

Water-based extraction that preserves the mushroom

AHARA extracts in water. No ethanol and no methanol at any stage, no solvent to strip out and nothing for your label to declare, and all 26 ganoderic acids are recovered that way. Processing-aid and ingredient declarations come with the lot documentation.

What the process preserves is structure. It is gentle enough that the mushroom’s own architecture survives extraction, and the nanofiber in our micrographs is the evidence. It is naturally occurring. Nothing is added, nothing is engineered and nothing is milled in, and it survives into both the raw water extract and the 55% glycerin blend.

That structure is what makes fast acting a claim your brand gets to make. Taken under the tongue, the actives cross tissue rather than going through the gut, where a meaningful fraction of what you paid for is degraded before it does anything. If speed of onset is part of your product story, the format has to support it.

How small the fiber actually is

Measured from our own transmission electron micrographs of Reishi extract, imaged at the University of Maryland at 80 kV and 15,000x with a 2 µm scale bar in frame. Not an illustration and not a model.

True scale, one human hair
One human hair, about 70,000 nm across370 fibers drawn to scale inside it
Every teal line above is one AHARA nanofiber, about 190 nm across. Across the sample set they run 100 to 500 nm on the short axis and about 3.6 µm long.
Logarithmic scale, for context
One AHARA nanofiber
190 nm
Wavelength of visible light
550 nm
Fine dust particle, PM2.5
2,500 nm
Human red blood cell
7,000 nm
One human hair
70,000 nm

Each step along the bar is a tenfold change, so everything fits in one view. The fiber is about 370x thinner than a hair, 37x smaller than a red blood cell and 13x smaller than a PM2.5 dust particle. It is also about a third of the wavelength of visible light, which is why a light microscope cannot resolve it and the imaging had to be done on an electron microscope.

The imaging is ours, not a stock illustration or a supplier’s description, and it was taken on our own material rather than on a reference sample. Ask for the original micrograph and the sample record with your sample.

See the micrograph and caption on the bulk overview.

Start with a practical trial

For a liquid supplement or co-manufacturing project, agree the supplied format, target formula, handling conditions and acceptance criteria. Evaluate appearance, flavor, compatibility, processing and stability under your actual conditions.

See the bulk ingredient overview, research library and public analytical dataset.

Evaluate the ingredient for your next formulation.

Tell us what your team manufactures. We will confirm material fit, sample availability, documentation and a quote for your expected volume. This request does not subscribe you to marketing.

Both Reishi and Lion's Mane contain fruiting body and mycelium, and no tissue ratio is specified. All extracts are liquid, extracted in water with no ethanol or methanol. State any certification or food/cosmetic requirements so we can assess fit.

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