Raoul Fraile: mushrooms and health
The mycological wealth contained in the province’s forests is the personal and professional motivation of forestry engineer Raul Fraile, manager of MundoReishi, a natural medicine store that also offers consultations on naturopathy and herbal medicine, at 19 Valentin Calderon, capital.
The variety of medicinal mushroom services in his business matches 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 herbal medicine, nutrition or oncology. some of them.
“Medicinal mushrooms are completely unknown, but they have very strong activity in some aspects that traditional medicine is not so strong in,” says Fraile, before pointing out the particular effect of these plants “in improving the immune system.” “This makes them useful for treating everything from the common cold to the flu,” he adds.
An example of the medicinal powers of mushrooms is reishi (its name 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 on this plant confirm its healing properties, which act on the human body due to the level of antioxidants and the ability to improve defense systems. “This is an excellent medicinal mushroom,” he emphasizes. In fact, it was the plant that gave the name to the Fraile enterprise, which has been operating for 12 years, three of which in the current headquarters of Valentin Calderon.
At MundoReishi you can also find a number of edible species that “have beneficial activities in the human body.” “Some are good for lowering blood pressure, others for lowering blood sugar, etc.,” Fraile explains.
This engineer’s knowledge allowed him to become an honorary member of the Quercus Mycological Association, based in the social center of Pan y Guindas, which brings together almost 50 active members. Ten years of existence of this association has allowed the development of a hobby that, according to Freil, is “growing.” Every Monday at the organization’s headquarters, it is possible to share mycological experience and knowledge with the rest of the participants, as well as identify mushrooms that have been collected to prevent poisoning. In addition, in November, as the culmination of all annual activities, a series of conferences with several presentations is organized, designed, among other things, to bring interested parties closer to this world so that “they can travel with experts in this field,” as detailed by the forestry engineer.
It should be noted that the knowledge of this forest engineer is shared, in addition to every Monday in the association, at master classes that he organizes at his enterprise for those interested. “Here I teach small courses on medicinal plants and mushrooms so that people know how to use these products to treat diseases. As an herbalist, I see many people turn to traditional medicine without knowing that there are plant medicine equivalents that work just as well,” he says.
In addition to all this, he helps identify mycological species through his YouTube channel Raúl Fraile Fabero, where he has over 10,000 subscribers.