CHAGA
Inonotus obliquus
COMMON NAMES: Chaga, birch mushroom.
FEATURES: In North America and Canada the birch is well known for its beauty alone. Its medical
purpose is served by a mushroom, or fungus-type growth, found in the older trees (also grows on beech
and other trees). This growth is rough, dry, porous, crusty, with deeply cut and crooked separations having
the appearance on the outside of dull charred wood. The surface is almost black in color. When this
projection is sawed off the tree it is as if the tree were having cosmetic surgery or the removal of an out-
ofcontrol wart. The matured and most desired chaga is 30–40 centimeters wide, 10–15 centimeters thick,
and may be 4–5 feet long, weighing 4–5 pounds. There are three layers: (1) the outside, rough with some
old bark and possibly twigs, must be cleaned; (2) the side, very close to the tree trunk, must be cut off;
and (3) the middle part, granulated and not spoiled, which is the part to use. It can be collected at any time
of the year.
Always keep chaga in a dry and dark place (dark covered jar) as dampness and strong light dissipate
its power.
MEDICINAL PART: Inside granulated parts of the three layers.
SOLVENTS: Boiled (not boiling) water, alcohol, vodka.
BODILY INFLUENCE: Tonic, blood purifying, anodyne, restorative.
USES: It is well known that the Native Americans knew all plants and how they were best used—for food,
medicine, or if they be poisonous. In Anglo-American literature we know that treatments of many
sicknesses were kept as tribal knowledge. We know they used the properties of many fungi, but from our
research work we cannot find a definite record of chaga being identified; we are poorly informed.
RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE: The existence of chaga and its uses are mentioned in Russian literature and in such
sources as monographs, medical books, encyclopedias, and popular herbal books.
Folk medicine of European Russia and Siberia gives nearly unlimited credit to chaga, which for
generations has been thought of as magical. Chaga has a long list of uses by persons of experience and
faith in herbal folk medicine. It was used for all stomach complaints—gastritis, stomach pain, ulcers—
and for cancer, tuberculosis of the bones, and glandular organs where operations were not possible due to