Maitake: the dancing mushroom

Maitake is the Japanese name for Grifola frondosa, a large edible fungus that grows in frilly, overlapping clusters at the base of trees, most often old oaks. In English it is usually called hen of the woods, because a good cluster looks like a brown hen sitting on the ground with her feathers fluffed out. Older British field guides also call it sheep's head or ram's head.

It belongs to the polypores, a group of fungi that release their spores from tiny pores on the underside rather than from gills. Each cluster grows from a hard, knobbly base about the size of a potato that sits partly underground, and it throws up dozens of grey brown, spoon shaped caps, each roughly 2 to 10 cm across, on a branching cream coloured stem. A typical clump is up to about 50 cm wide. Exceptional ones in Japan have been reported at more than 45 kg.

The fungus lives on the roots of its host tree and slowly causes a white rot in the heartwood. Because it is perennial, the same tree can produce a cluster in the same spot for several years running, which is why foragers guard their hen of the woods trees closely.

Today maitake is sold in three quite different ways: fresh or dried as a cooking mushroom, as a powdered or concentrated extract in capsules and gummies, and as a subject of laboratory research into its polysaccharides. This guide covers all three.

Mai means dance and take means mushroom, so maitake translates as dancing mushroom. The usual story is that foragers in Japan danced for joy when they found a cluster. Another reading is that the ruffled caps look like dancers in motion. Either way, the name points to how highly the mushroom was valued.

In Japan it has been eaten and traded for centuries. Wild clusters were said to be worth their weight in silver, and pickers were known to keep their spots secret, sometimes for a lifetime. In China it has the name hui shu hua, often translated as grey tree flower, after its shape and colour.

The scientific name has its own history. The English botanist James Dickson described the species in 1785 as Boletus frondosus. Samuel Frederick Gray moved it into the genus Grifola in 1821, and that is the name still used today.

Wild maitake was scarce enough that it stayed a luxury in Japan until the 1980s, when growers worked out how to fruit it reliably indoors. Commercial cultivation made it an everyday supermarket mushroom there, and much of the research on it since then has come from Japanese universities and mushroom companies.

Hen of the woods grows wild across the temperate northern hemisphere, including Japan, China, much of Europe and eastern North America. In Britain and Ireland it is widespread but occasional, and it can be patchy from year to year. Some autumns bring a flush on many trees at once, then the same oaks produce nothing for a season or two.

• Where: at the foot of mature broadleaf trees, especially oak, and less often beech, maple or chestnut. It sits right against the trunk or over buried roots.
• When: late summer into autumn. In the UK that usually means August to October.
• What to look for: a rosette of many small grey brown caps with paler margins, white pores underneath, a white spore print and a firm white flesh that does not change colour when cut.

The main UK lookalike is the giant polypore, Meripilus giganteus, which also grows at the base of broadleaf trees. Its fronds are much larger and wider, and its flesh and pores bruise black when handled. Chicken of the woods, Laetiporus sulphureus, is sometimes confused with hen of the woods by name alone, but it is bright orange and yellow and grows in shelves on the trunk. The rare umbrella polypore, Polyporus umbellatus, is another relative with round, central stemmed caps.

If you forage, follow the usual rules. Never eat a wild mushroom unless you are certain of the identification, ideally confirmed by an experienced local group. In England and Wales you need the landowner's permission to pick on private land, picking is banned on many nature reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and taking wild mushrooms to sell can be an offence. Cut a small part of a cluster and leave the base so the fungus keeps fruiting.

Maitake is one of the best flavoured cultivated mushrooms. It is earthy, a little peppery and savoury, with a firm, almost meaty bite at the base and crisp, frilly edges when roasted or fried hard. The savoury depth comes partly from natural glutamic acid and aspartic acid, together with the sugar trehalose and compounds called nucleotides.

In Japan it goes into hot pots (nabemono), tempura, rice cooked with mushrooms (takikomi gohan) and soba noodle broths. In British kitchens it works well in:

• a hot pan with butter or oil, pressed flat so the edges crisp
• risottos, pasta and ramen
• roasted whole on a tray as a vegetarian centrepiece, the so called maitake steak
• soups and stocks, where it adds body

Always cook it. Softer, older caps in particular should be cooked right through, and wild clusters need thorough cleaning because leaf litter and grit get caught in the folds. Tear rather than slice it, so the pieces keep their feathered shape.

To store fresh maitake, keep it whole in a paper bag in the fridge and use it within a few days. It freezes well once cooked, and many cooks freeze it raw too. Dried maitake keeps for months and should be soaked before use, with the soaking liquid saved for stock.

Fresh maitake is now easy to find in the UK. It turns up in larger supermarkets, including Waitrose, at specialist grocers and online. Several British growers cultivate it indoors on sawdust blocks, and Japanese and Korean shops stock it fresh and dried.

As a food, maitake is light. According to the US Department of Agriculture's reference data, 100 g of raw maitake contains roughly:

• 31 kcal
• 1.9 g protein and 0.2 g fat
• 7 g carbohydrate, of which 2.7 g is fibre
• 6.6 mg niacin and 0.24 mg riboflavin
• 204 mg potassium, 74 mg phosphorus, 0.25 mg copper and 0.75 mg zinc
• about 1 mg sodium

The same USDA sample listed 28 micrograms of vitamin D per 100 g. Mushrooms make vitamin D2 from a sterol called ergosterol when they are exposed to ultraviolet light, so the real amount in a pack depends on how the mushrooms were grown and whether they saw daylight or UV lamps. Indoor grown maitake can contain far less. The NHS advises everyone in the UK to consider 10 micrograms of vitamin D a day in autumn and winter, and mushrooms should not be relied on to meet that.

The reason maitake attracts research interest is its polysaccharides, long chains of sugar units. The best known are beta glucans, a type of fibre found in the cell walls of mushrooms, yeast, oats and barley. Maitake beta glucans are mainly a beta 1,6 backbone with beta 1,3 branches, which differs from the structure in cereals.

Researchers have given names to several maitake fractions, which are partly purified extracts. The ones you will see on labels and in papers include:

• D-fraction: a protein bound beta glucan extract from the fruiting body, developed by Japanese researchers and the most studied
• MD-fraction: a further purified version of D-fraction
• SX-fraction: a glycoprotein fraction studied mainly for blood sugar in animals and small open trials
• Grifolan: a beta glucan studied in cell work

Maitake also contains ergosterol, triterpenes, phenolic compounds such as flavonoids and phenolic acids, the amino acid ergothioneine and a spread of fatty acids including linoleic and oleic acid. A 2024 review in the journal Heliyon by Camilleri and colleagues (read it on PubMed Central) gathers the lab data on these compounds in one place.

Most maitake research has been done in cells and animals. The human studies are fewer, smaller and often in people who were already ill. These are the ones worth knowing about, with what was actually measured.

• Healthy older adults and memory tests, 2026. In a Japanese double blind trial, 47 healthy people aged 60 or over ate bread containing 50 g of one of two maitake strains, or plain bread, every day for 18 weeks. The group eating strain Y10M scored higher than placebo on the Japanese Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and their natural killer cell activity rose. The other strain showed no difference. Several authors work for Yukiguni Factory, a large maitake grower that developed Y10M. PubMed 42055721
• Colds in healthy adults, 2026. The same research group ran a placebo controlled trial with young adults for 11 weeks and middle aged and older adults for 18 weeks, again using maitake bread. The number of colds did not differ between groups. People eating strain Y10M had fewer total days of fever and runny nose, and older participants showed changes in some immune cells. PubMed 42627298
• Polycystic ovary syndrome, 2010. In an open trial at three Japanese clinics, women with PCOS were given either maitake SX-fraction or the standard fertility drug clomiphene. Ovulation occurred in 20 of 26 women on maitake and 29 of 31 on clomiphene. Counted by cycle, clomiphene did clearly better. The trial was not blinded. PubMed 21034160

Older and weaker evidence is often quoted too. A small study reported by the review authors gave 35 people with HIV tablets of 250 mg maitake powder for a year, with CD4 counts rising in 20 of them, again without a comparison group.

Much of what you read online about maitake benefits comes from test tube and animal work. It is useful for showing what compounds might do, but it cannot tell you what will happen when a person eats the mushroom or takes a supplement. Here is what that research covers.

• Immune cells. In mice, maitake extracts raised markers such as phagocytosis and natural killer cell activity. Vetvicka and Vetvickova (2014) gave mice oral maitake and shiitake glucans for 14 days, and several markers of immune activity rose compared with mice given nothing, with the combination giving the largest changes. PubMed 25332990
• Viruses and bacteria. Maitake proteins and extracts have shown activity against herpes simplex, hepatitis B and enterovirus EV71 in cell culture, and against several bacteria in dishes. In mice infected with Listeria, more of the animals given D-fraction survived. The Heliyon review notes that research in this area is still thin.
• Blood sugar. Rodent studies found lower blood glucose and better insulin response with maitake extracts. Researchers have linked this to polysaccharides, ergosterol, pyrrole alkaloids and unsaturated fatty acids, and to blocking an enzyme called alpha glucosidase.
• Blood fats and blood pressure. In a 1997 rat study, feeding maitake fruiting body lowered blood triglycerides, cholesterol and phospholipids, and increased the cholesterol passed in faeces. Other rat work found lower systolic blood pressure.
• Skin. Lab and mouse studies have looked at maitake extracts for dry skin and atopic dermatitis, and at its antioxidant content. A 2023 comparison found higher polyphenol and flavonoid levels in maitake extracts than in reishi or lion's mane extracts. This interest is mostly from the cosmetics industry, and it is about creams rather than eating the mushroom.
• Gut bacteria. Recent animal work suggests maitake polysaccharides change the mix of gut bacteria, which is an active area but early.

Healthline and many supplement sites describe these findings as if they applied to people. The honest reading is that they are reasons to run human trials, and most of those trials have not yet been done.

Putting the human and lab research side by side gives a clearer picture than any single study.

What the evidence does show

• Maitake extracts taken by mouth produce measurable changes in immune markers in human blood, in both directions depending on dose.
• Short term use at the doses tested was well tolerated in small trials, with nausea, rash and itching the side effects reported.
• Eating maitake as food is a long standing part of the diet in Japan and China, and the fruiting body has a long record as a food in Europe too.
• A couple of recent Japanese food trials found differences between maitake strains, which suggests that what you eat or take matters as much as the species name.

What the evidence does not show

• The blood sugar and cholesterol findings come almost entirely from rodents.
• Results from one branded fraction or one strain cannot be assumed for a different product.
• Many of the human studies were small, unblinded, lacked a placebo group or were funded by companies that sell maitake.

Maitake is sometimes called an adaptogen. That word has no official meaning in UK or EU food law, and no maitake study has tested it in the way the term implies.

Cooked maitake is a normal food and is well tolerated by most people. Supplements are more concentrated, so a little more care makes sense. Reported side effects in trials were uncommon and mild: nausea, joint swelling, rash and itching, and asymptomatic changes in blood eosinophil counts. As with any mushroom, some people are allergic.

Speak to a GP or pharmacist before taking a maitake supplement if any of these apply:

• Pregnancy or breastfeeding. There is not enough safety data, so the usual advice is to avoid supplements and stick to maitake as a cooked food, if at all.
• Diabetes medicines. Animal studies found lower blood sugar, so there is a theoretical risk of blood sugar dropping too far if combined with insulin or tablets.
• Blood pressure medicines. Rat studies found lower blood pressure, and some drug references list this as a possible interaction.
• Warfarin. A 2010 case report described a raised INR, a measure of blood clotting time, in a man on warfarin who started a maitake extract. PubMed 20040699
• Surgery. US drug references advise stopping maitake supplements two weeks before planned surgery because of possible effects on blood sugar.
• Autoimmune conditions or immune suppressing medicines. Because maitake extracts change immune markers, and not always in the same direction, anyone on transplant medicines, biologics or similar treatment should check first.

People who grow maitake commercially face a separate risk. A 2004 Japanese case report described a mushroom farm worker who developed hypersensitivity pneumonitis, an allergic lung reaction, from breathing maitake spores at work (PubMed 15468977). This does not apply to eating it or taking an extract.

Maitake supplements come as powders, capsules, tinctures, liquid extracts and gummies. The label tells you more than the marketing, so look for these details.

• Fruiting body or mycelium. The fruiting body is the mushroom you would cook. Mycelium is the root like network, often grown on grain, which can leave starch in the final powder. Under EU and GB novel food rules, maitake fruiting body and its water extracts are not novel, because they were eaten before May 1997, while mycelium based ingredients can be assessed separately, so check that a supplement is sold legally in the UK.
• Extract ratio. A 10:1 extract usually means about 10 parts of dried mushroom went into making 1 part of extract. It tells you about concentration but not the beta glucan content.
• Beta glucan content. Some brands state a percentage. Check whether it has been tested by a method that measures beta glucans specifically rather than all polysaccharides, which include starch.
• Dose. Studies used very different amounts, from a few milligrams per kg of body weight of a purified fraction to 50 g of whole mushroom a day in bread. US references often quote 1 to 1.5 g of extract a day. There is no official recommended intake in the UK.
• A named UK business. Buy from a company with a UK address and clear contact details.

In the UK, food supplements are regulated as foods, not medicines. They do not need approval before sale, and local Trading Standards and councils enforce the rules. Any health claim has to be on the GB nutrition and health claims register. There are no authorised health claims for maitake or for mushroom beta glucans. The authorised beta glucan claims apply only to oat and barley beta glucans at set amounts, so they cannot be borrowed for a mushroom product. If a maitake product says it will boost immunity or balance blood sugar, it is breaking those rules.

Maitake is one of the six mushrooms in Starshroooms, our blackcurrant flavoured gummy. Each gummy combines a 10:1 maitake extract with lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps, chaga and tremella, plus Panax ginseng. The gummies are vegan and caffeine free, and the routine is two a day, at whatever time suits you.

We include maitake because it is a long standing culinary mushroom with a growing body of research, and it pairs naturally with the others in the blend. We do not claim that Starshroooms, or the maitake in it, treats or prevents anything, and the studies above tested different forms and doses from a daily gummy.

A 60 gummy pack of Starshroooms is £24.99, about a month's supply. You can read about the other ingredients in our guides to lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps, chaga, tremella and Panax ginseng, see the full list of studies on our research page, or browse all our mushroom gummies.