Wood Ear (Auricularia species*)*

A crunchy, gelatinous mushroom common in Chinese cooking (hot-and-sour soup, stir-fries). Its most important property for this site's purposes isn't a health claim — it's a genuine anticoagulant effect.

Not medical advice. For education only. If you take blood thinners, talk to your doctor before eating wood ear regularly or in large amounts — see Safety below.

What the evidence shows

Wood ear polysaccharides have documented antiplatelet and mild anticoagulant activity in laboratory research, mediated through effects on platelet aggregation and antithrombin pathways. Broader immune and antioxidant claims are preclinical (cell and animal studies). This mushroom is better documented as a safety consideration than as a proven therapeutic agent.

Evidence level: preclinical for health benefits; the anticoagulant effect itself is well documented, including in humans (see Safety).

How it's used

Almost exclusively culinary — dried and rehydrated for soups, salads, and stir-fries. Not commonly sold as a standardised medicinal extract.

Safety

A classic 1980 case report in the New England Journal of Medicine ("Szechwan Purpura") traced an unexplained bleeding tendency in a researcher back to regular wood ear consumption, demonstrating a real aspirin-like antiplatelet effect in humans. People taking anticoagulant or antiplatelet medication (warfarin, aspirin, clopidogrel) should talk to their doctor before eating wood ear regularly or in large quantities, and should mention it before any surgery. Occasional culinary use in small amounts is unlikely to be an issue for most people, but caution scales with quantity and frequency.

Quality notes

A culinary ingredient — freshness and proper rehydration/cooking matter more than any "quality marker."

Sources

Explore the other medicinal mushrooms or our full plant catalogue.