Agaricus

The Agaricus blazei murrill (ABM), also known as the sun mushroom or almond mushroom, originally comes from Brazil and is a tasty edible mushroom from the mushroom family. Its name "almond mushroom" refers to its almond-like odour.

The sun mushroom is one of the medicinal mushrooms with the most recent history of utilisation. While other medicinal mushrooms often have a long tradition as edible or medicinal mushrooms (in traditional Chinese medicine), Agaricus blazei murril was probably only utilised much later. In the middle of the last century, it is said to have attracted attention in a certain district in Brazil where particularly few people suffered from age-related complaints. As it later turned out, ABM was a particularly regular part of the diet of the people in this region, which made it a centre of interest.

Agaricus is particularly interesting due to its high polysaccharide content (including beta glucan such as beta-D-glucan) - along with maitake, it has the highest content of all known medicinal mushrooms. In particular, the sun mushroom, like maitake, contains the highly valued beta-D-glucan!