Raoul Fraile: Mushrooms and Health

The mycological wealth contained in the province’s forests is the personal and professional inspiration of forestry engineer Raul Fraile, manager of Mundoreschi, which also offers naturopathy and phytotherapy consultations, 19th from the capital.

The diversity of services related to medicinal mushrooms in his business corresponds to the extensive training of Raoul Fraile, who adds to his resume a professorship in mycology, a doctorate in medicine and several postgraduate degrees related to phytotherapy, nutrition or oncology. Few of them.

“Medicinal mushrooms are quite unknown, but they have very strong activity in some aspects in which traditional medicine is not so powerful,” says Fraile, before citing the special effect of this plant “on improving immunity”. “This makes them useful for treating everything from the common cold to the flu,” he adds.

An example of the medicinal abilities of mushrooms is the reishi (as it is called in Japanese), or pipe mushroom, which grows in the forests of the province and has been “used for thousands of years.” More than 2,000 medical publications support this plant’s healing properties, which act on the human body due to its antioxidant levels and ability to improve the defense system. “It’s medicinal mushroom par excellence,” he emphasizes. In fact, it is the plant that gives its name to Fraile’s business, which has been in operation for 12 years, three at the current Valentin Calderón headquarters.

At MundoReishi, you can also find a range of edible species “with beneficial activity in the human organism”. “Some are useful for blood pressure, others for lowering blood sugar levels, etc.,” explains Fraile.

This knowledge of the engineer has led him to become an honorary member of the Quercus Mycological Association, based in Pen y Guindas Social Centre, which brings together around 50 active members. The association, which has been in operation for 10 years, has allowed the development of a hobby that, according to Fraile, “keeps growing.” Every Monday, at the headquarters of the entity, you can share mycological experiences and knowledge with the rest of the members, as well as identify mushrooms collected to prevent poisoning. In addition, in November, as a culmination of all the annual activity, a series of conferences with different presentations are organized, among other things, to bring those interested closer to this world, so that “they can go into the field with the experts”, in detail. By Forestry Engineer.

It should be noted that the knowledge of this forestry engineer is shared, in addition to every Monday in the association, he organizes workshops in his profession for those who are interested. «Here I give small courses on medicinal plants and mushrooms so that people know how to use these products in the treatment of their diseases. As a phytotherapist, I see many people turning to traditional medicine without realizing that there are equivalents in plant medicines that work in the same way,” he says.

Complementing all this, he helps identify mycological species through his YouTube channel, Raul Fraile Fabero, on which he has more than 10,000 subscribers.