Reishi Mushroom
Ganoderma lucidum
Reishi is a medicinal mushroom studied for immune and metabolic effects, and in AlphaCleanse it works as a supporting botanical at 55 mg per serving rather than as a primary active.
AlphaCleanse, 2-capsule serving
- Milk Thistle165 mg
- Spirulina110 mg
- Ginger110 mg
- Turmeric110 mg
- Dandelion Root55 mg
- Reishi MushroomReishi55 mg
- Beetroot55 mg
- Burdock Root27.5 mg
- Rhubarb Root27.5 mg
- Schisandra BerrySchisandra27.5 mg
- Nettle Leaf27.5 mg
- BioPerine2.75 mg
Every amount is printed on the label. No proprietary blend.
Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum, called lingzhi in China and reishi in Japan) is a reddish, fan-shaped fungus that grows at the base of hardwood trees.
Its best-studied constituents are polysaccharides and triterpenoids.
It has been used in Chinese medicine for roughly 2,000 years and now turns up in a great many Western supplements aimed at energy, immunity and general vitality.
The 55 mg in AlphaCleanse is a chosen number rather than a leftover one, and the liver-injury literature is the reason: the reported cases sit at gram-level doses of concentrated powder, and 55 mg is nowhere near them.
How much is in AlphaCleanse
In short: AlphaCleanse contains 55 mg of reishi mushroom per 2-capsule serving, joint fifth by weight on its 12-ingredient panel.
55 mg of reishi mushroom per 2-capsule serving.
That places it joint fifth among the 12 ingredients, level with dandelion root and beetroot.
It sits behind milk thistle at 165 mg and behind spirulina, ginger and turmeric at 110 mg each.
AlphaCleanse is made with organic ingredients.
There is no proprietary blend on the panel. Every one of the 12 ingredients carries its own milligram amount, so you can check any of them against the literature yourself.
What the evidence shows
In short: a Cochrane review found reishi did nothing for blood glucose, and the 1 liver study used 225 mg.
The strongest human evidence is a Cochrane systematic review (Klupp et al., Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2015, PMID 25686270). What it found:
- 5 trials with 398 participants in total, of which 3 supplied usable data.
- Reishi at 1.4 g to 3 g daily against placebo, for 12 to 16 weeks, in adults with type 2 diabetes.
- No significant effect on HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose, total or LDL cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides or BMI.
- Participants on reishi were somewhat more likely to report an adverse event (RR 1.67, 95% CI 0.86 to 3.24), though none was serious.
A later trial by the same group (Klupp et al., Scientific Reports, 2016, PMID 27511742) randomised 84 adults to 3 g a day for 16 weeks and again found nothing on blood glucose.
One smaller study is directly about the liver.
Chiu et al. (Pharmaceutical Biology, 2017, PMID 28183232) ran a 6-month crossover in 42 healthy volunteers on a 225 mg capsule of triterpenoid and polysaccharide-enriched reishi taken after a meal. What moved:
- GOT and GPT, the older names for AST and ALT, fell by 42% and 27%.
- Antioxidant capacity rose.
- Abdominal ultrasound findings moved from mild fatty liver toward normal.
It is a single-centre study with 42 people and no independent replication.
Our 55 mg is under a quarter of the 225 mg used in that liver study, and roughly 2% of the gram-level doses the Cochrane trials tested.
Reishi has never been trialled at 55 mg on its own, which is why the thing to weigh is the finished formula rather than one line of it.
AlphaCleanse is what our 12-week study (NCT07738744) is registered on, and all 12 amounts in it are printed for you to check.
Why this dose
In short: 55 mg was set by the safety literature, because every reported reishi liver injury involves gram-level powder.
The safety literature set this number.
Every published case of liver injury attributed to reishi involves concentrated powder at gram-level doses, usually after 1 to 2 months of daily use, and 55 mg sits far below that range.
In a product people take every day for liver support, that margin is the whole point.
Dosing reishi up to the level the case reports describe would put a liver formula at odds with itself.
The rest is architecture.
AlphaCleanse is built as an anchor with support around it: milk thistle at 165 mg carries the clinical weight, and the other 11 ingredients add breadth at amounts printed on the panel where anyone can check them.
Reishi is one of those 11, and holding it against a solo reishi trial asks a question this formula was never built to answer.
The comparison that tells you something is the one against products that fold reishi into a proprietary blend and print no amount at all.
Safety and interactions
In short: LiverTox scores reishi D, and the reported injuries follow gram-level powder taken for 1 to 2 months.
The NIH LiverTox database has a full entry for lingzhi and reishi (NBK609014) and gives it a likelihood score of D, meaning a possible but rare cause of clinically apparent liver injury.
LiverTox notes that in multiple small placebo-controlled trials, serum aminotransferase levels did not change and no jaundice or clinically apparent injury was reported.
Against that, a small number of reports from China, Japan, Thailand and India describe hepatocellular injury after 1 to 2 months of use, ranging from asymptomatic enzyme elevations to severe hepatitis with liver failure.
Recovery was rapid after stopping, complete within 1 to 3 months, with no reports of chronic injury.
LiverTox also says plainly that many of these cases were poorly documented and that other causes were not always excluded.
The most serious published case is Wanmuang et al. (Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand, 2007, PMID 17621752), a fatal fulminant hepatitis.
Both that patient and an earlier Hong Kong case had taken boiled lingzhi without trouble for a long time, then switched to powdered lingzhi for 1 to 2 months before the injury appeared.
The form and the dose seem to matter.
Who should be careful. Talk to your doctor before adding AlphaCleanse if any of these apply:
- You have an existing liver condition.
- You are on any medicine that carries a liver warning.
- You are already taking a separate high-dose reishi product.
- You take warfarin, clopidogrel or daily aspirin, because reishi has reported effects on platelet function. Tell your prescriber before you start.
Anyone with a mushroom allergy should skip AlphaCleanse.
The 12-week AlphaCleanse study (NCT07738744) excluded people on warfarin or antiplatelet therapy and anyone with an allergy to any ingredient. That is corroboration for our caution, not evidence that harm occurred.
No human interaction study covers reishi alongside immunosuppressant drugs. If you take one, ask your prescriber first.
Stop taking it and see a doctor if you develop dark urine, yellowing of the eyes or skin, new itching, persistent nausea, loss of appetite or unexplained fatigue.
Common questions
In short: AlphaCleanse has no stimulants, no proprietary blend, and 55 mg of reishi printed on the panel.
Reishi has liver injury reports. Why is it in a liver supplement?
Because the reported injuries and the amount in AlphaCleanse are not on the same scale.
LiverTox rates reishi a possible rare cause of liver injury and the published cases involve concentrated powder at gram-level doses, usually after 1 to 2 months of daily use, with the most severe case following a switch from boiled lingzhi to powder.
AlphaCleanse contains 55 mg per serving.
We are not going to argue the cases away, and we would rather you read the LiverTox entry yourself than take our word for it.
If you get dark urine, yellowing eyes or new itching, stop and see a doctor.
Is 55 mg of reishi too low to do anything?
On its own, probably.
The trials that tested reishi as a single agent used 1.4 g to 3 g a day, and the one liver-outcome study used 225 mg.
Our 55 mg is well under both, and we describe it as a supporting amount in a 12-ingredient formula rather than a clinical dose.
The amounts doing the heavier work on the AlphaCleanse panel are milk thistle at 165 mg and the 3 ingredients at 110 mg, with reishi and the smaller botanicals adding breadth around them. That is a design choice and we print it.
Before you judge our 55 mg, look at what a competing liver formula prints beside its own reishi: if the answer is a blend total instead of a number, you cannot run this comparison on their label at all.
Is reishi hidden inside a proprietary blend?
No. AlphaCleanse has no proprietary blend.
All 12 ingredients are listed individually with their own milligram amounts on the Supplement Facts panel, reishi at 55 mg included, which is exactly why you can hold this page's evidence section against our own label and do the arithmetic yourself.
Blends that print only a blend total make that check impossible.
If you are comparing liver supplements, that is the first thing to look for: 12 separate numbers on the panel, or a blend total that tells you nothing.
Does reishi in AlphaCleanse cause drowsiness or contain stimulants?
AlphaCleanse contains no caffeine and no stimulants. None of the 12 ingredients is a stimulant.
Reishi is often described as calming in traditional use, but we have no trial data showing that 55 mg produces any sedative effect, and we are not claiming it does.
The one clinical finding on fatigue comes from Tang et al. 2005 (PMID 15857210), where 132 people took 1,800 mg of a reishi polysaccharide extract 3 times a day for 8 weeks and reported a larger drop in fatigue scores than placebo.
That trial used many times our amount, so read it as background on the ingredient rather than a statement about AlphaCleanse.
What we can tell you about this product is on the panel: no caffeine, no stimulants, and 12 amounts listed in full.
The other 11 ingredients
AlphaCleanse contains reishi mushroom at 55 mg per serving.
See AlphaCleanse60-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked, no restocking fee.
Citations on this page: PMID 25686270, PMID 27511742, PMID 28183232, PMID 17621752, PMID 15857210
Last reviewed: 2026-09-17