It is the company’s first official foray into mycelium, the vegetative, root-like network of thin thread-like hyphae strands responsible for absorbing nutrients and connecting the entire fungal network.
Since its founding in 1989, the Canadian supplier has specialized in producing organic mushroom extract powders, sourcing cultivated and wild-harvested mushrooms from production partners in China and processing them into ingredients for the North American supplement and functional food markets.
“For over 25 years, Nammex has been dedicated to quality and testing in the fungal industry,” said Skye Chilton, CEO of Nammex. “While most of the active compounds are concentrated in the mushroom, there can be interesting compounds found in other fungal parts like mycelium. Erinacine A is one of those compounds only found in the mycelium of lion’s mane so if we wanted access to this compound, we needed a mycelium ingredient.“
Branded as ErinaPrime, the ingredient launches in partnership with Novelara, the exclusive North American distributor for Grape King Bio, which produces the raw material at its facility in Taiwan.
Separating mycelium from the grain
Noting that many of the functional compounds of interest are found in the mushroom body, Nammex says that it has never opposed mycelium, provided it is properly characterized and accurately labeled.
Its positioning differentiates ErinaPrime from conventional mycelium fermented grain products, which Chilton described as inseparable grain and mycelium matrix.
“Most mycelium ingredients on the market are mycelium fermented grain products with chemical profiles much closer to the grain substrate than to pure mycelium,” he said. “ErinaPrime is fundamentally different.”
Produced through Grape King Bio’s submerged liquid fermentation process optimized for compound expression, ErinaPrime is the product of years of R&D that spawned dedicated mushroom research facilities, reference standard manufacturing laboratories and advanced analytical capabilities for erinacine production and verification.
“There’s no shortcut to bringing a genuinely novel ingredient like ErinaPrime to market,” said Paul Eftang, CEO of Novelara. “We spent the better part of a decade building the scientific infrastructure to make this possible […]. Our partners at Grape King Bio built a state-of-the-art liquid bioreactor facility capable of producing pure Lion’s Mane mycelium standardized to erinacine A at true commercial scale.”
Protecting the erinacines
After the liquid fermentation process, the ErinaPrime raw material is processed through precision freeze-drying without extraction or solvents to preserve the mycelium’s natural compounds.
“Protecting the integrity of the erinacines is paramount throughout the entire process,” Chilton said. “Mycelium is fragile, and consistently producing meaningful levels of erinacine A at commercial scale requires specialized expertise in strain optimization, liquid culture fermentation, analytical verification and quality assurance. Every stage of production is focused on preserving the biochemical composition and consistency of the mycelium.”
Eftang added that testing conducted by Omnient Labs—the independent, ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited analytical testing lab which he founded alongside Nootropics Depot to provide pharmaceutical-grade testing and quality control standards—confirms that ErinaPrime contains more than 90 times the erinacine A content of the average lion’s mane sample evaluated.
To substantiate the benefits of the erinacine A-enriched mycelium, an expanding research program is also exploring ErinaPrime’s cognitive health-promoting properties.
Grape King Bio has conducted research on the ingredient, introduced in 2017 as GK Heripene and standardized to contain 5 mg of erinacine-A per gram of lion’s mane. Early animal studies examined the ingredient’s potential benefits for stroke-related outcomes before expanding investigations into its effects on cognitive and neurological health.
Commenting on a pilot human study published in 2020 and supported by Grape King Bio, Jenny Li, deputy section manager at Grape King Bio, previously told NutraIngredients that it is GK Heripene’s mechanism that sets it apart. The year-long study assessed the impact of 5 mg of erinacine A per gram per day compared to placebo in 49 older adults with mild Alzheimer’s symptoms.
“What it does is that it not only helps the neurons, but also oligodendrocytes, astrocytes and microglia which are collectively known as the glial cells,” she explained, adding that ericinacine-A may also play a role in reducing neuroinflammation by crossing the blood-brain barrier.
As an evolution of GK Heripene, ErinaPrime delivers twice the concentration of ericinacine-A.
