"The nutrients of chaga mushroom, created by the nature of Siberia, are delivered to consumers without any loss." This is the product philosophy of Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom. It is a promise to our customers, and also a commitment to ourselves.
The chaga mushroom, grown over 20 years in the birch forests of Siberia, creating things of its own — delivering those things, just as nature made them, intact. That is all. It is simple.
Yet keeping this simple answer in practice was never simple. Over 22 years, the countless choices we have made — each and every one of them was a decision made to uphold this single philosophy. Today, we would like to share that story.
The Starting Point of Our Product Philosophy | Where Does the Efficacy of Chaga Mushroom Come From
Many people try to explain the efficacy of chaga mushroom through specific compounds. They say, "because it is rich in beta-glucan," "because its chromogenic complex value is high," or "because it contains a lot of polyphenols." These are not wrong. If those compounds did not exist, such efficacy would not exist either.
However, this is only half the truth.
The number of chemical compounds that modern science has created or whose structures it understands does not exceed 3,000. Yet the number of compounds a single tree generates exceeds 100,000.
The same is true of chaga mushroom. The key compounds of chaga mushroom identified through research so far number no more than about 100. But the number of compounds that create chaga mushroom's true efficacy is dozens, even hundreds of times greater than that.
The remarkable efficacy of chaga mushroom is the result of a complex interplay created by the identified compounds together with far more numerous compounds yet to be discovered.
This fact is the starting point of the product philosophy that determines everything about us at Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom.
"A good chaga mushroom product is not one with a high ratio of already-known compounds, but one that fully preserves the natural state as it is — down to the known compounds and the compounds not yet identified."
1. An Uncompromising Commitment to the Finest Raw Materials
The proposition that a good product must start from good raw materials is the most important principle of Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom.
We insist exclusively on wild chaga mushrooms that have grown on their own, enduring harsh cold for more than 15 to 20 years, in the Siberian taiga forests reaching latitudes 45–55°N. The raw materials, harvested by herb gatherers in the taiga forests and finished with primary and secondary drying, are gathered at the raw-material workshop of a pharmaceutical company in Tomsk, Siberia.
Here, our staff and local experts participate directly, carrying out manual selection based on multiple criteria — form, density of tissue, color, drying condition, and even heft.
Only the finest raw materials that pass this rigorous selection process become the ingredients of Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom products, and before full-scale production, they are thoroughly tested with state-of-the-art equipment on par with pharmaceutical raw materials, verifying radiation, heavy metals, and bacterial contamination.
2. Low-Temperature Extraction and Vacuum Concentration to Preserve Nutrients
The active compounds of chaga mushroom are highly vulnerable to heat. Boiling at high temperatures can increase yield, but the truly important core nutrients are destroyed, and unnecessary lignin compounds leach out instead, hindering absorption by the human body.
That is why Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom adheres to a low-temperature extraction method that begins at 65 degrees Celsius and finishes at 45 degrees. The yield is low and the process is demanding, but it is a step we can never give up in order to extract the bioactive substances of nature, just as they are, in their entirety.
The extract passes through two-stage ultra-fine filtration to remove impurities completely, and then enters the concentration process, the core of our manufacturing technology.
Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom's concentration process proceeds under vacuum at a maintained temperature of 45–55℃. Concentrating under vacuum allows moisture to evaporate effectively even at low temperatures, so we can produce a stable concentrate while protecting the heat-sensitive compounds of chaga mushroom.
The concentration process is technically the most demanding one, but through long years of experience and expertise, Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom perfectly protects the heat-sensitive compounds of chaga mushroom and completes 'Gustoy', a stable concentrate with 35% solids.
3. The Right Drying Method That Blocks Nutrient Loss
The drying process is the final stage of turning the concentrate into powder, and the key is not raising quality but minimizing the loss of nutrients that occurs in the process of removing moisture. Many of the core compounds of chaga mushroom are volatile substances, so the longer the drying takes, the more nutrients vanish into the air.
For this reason, Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom excludes the freeze-drying method, which takes as long as 24 to 72 hours. Freeze-drying is excellent for preserving the form of the raw material, but for already-liquefied extract powder it is not only unnecessary — it also causes serious nutrient loss over the long stretch of time.
Moreover, in the process of grinding the hardened solid mass, there is even the risk of metal powder contamination from friction with metal blades.
By contrast, we produce our products using only the spray-drying method, which finishes drying in just 15 to 30 seconds, and the low-temperature vacuum drying method, which is completed within 30 to 60 minutes.
4. Why We Insist on Local Production in Siberia
Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom does not import raw materials into Korea for processing; it produces finished products through an exclusive production line at a local facility in Siberia certified under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for pharmaceuticals.
Chaga mushroom, once it falls from a living birch tree, begins to oxidize rapidly from that very moment. The long time it takes to transport raw materials or semi-finished products to Korea, and Korea's hot and humid climate, are critical factors that accelerate the oxidation of chaga mushroom and raise the risk of microbial contamination.
Even at far greater cost and effort, carrying out every manufacturing process immediately after harvest on site in Siberia is so that not a single drop of the vitality chaga mushroom possesses is lost. It is a rigorous quality control system unique to Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom — one that could never be achieved by importing mass-produced stock goods made for unknown buyers and merely changing the packaging.
An Unchanging Promise: We Deliver Nature as It Is
All the choices we have kept over the past 22 years ultimately converge into a single product philosophy.
Insisting on good raw materials,
insisting on low-temperature extraction,
insisting on vacuum concentration,
insisting on a short drying time,
insisting on local production in Siberia,
insisting on the expensive GMP pharmaceutical production facility
all of it stems from one single reason.
To deliver the nutrients of chaga mushroom, exactly as nature made them, fully from Siberia to the hands of the consumer.
What consumers can see directly is only the powder inside a small bottle. But within that single powder reaching their hands are layered, upon one another: swift handling right after harvest, rapid manufacturing on site, selection felt piece by piece by hand, low-temperature extraction and vacuum concentration, ultra-short-time drying — and the steadfast commitment with which we have upheld all of this for more than 20 years.
Ohkinam Chaga Mushroom does not rely on flashy marketing or artificial manipulation of ingredients. As we always have, we will devote ourselves solely to delivering, in its entirety, the vitality that Siberia's harsh nature has nurtured over a long time — the efficacy of wondrous nature, just as it is. That is the product philosophy we have kept for more than 20 years, and the true promise and commitment that will never change, now and always.
- Kinam Oh, kinam_oh@hanmail.net
