From the YINA Materia Medica — a living library of the botanicals we formulate with, read in two languages at once: the classical and the molecular.
THE ENTRY
Chinese — 银耳 (yín'ěr), "silver ear"
Also known as — 白木耳 báimù'ěr, 雪耳 xuě'ěr
Scientific — Tremella fuciformis Berk., Tremellaceae
Kingdom — Fungi. A jelly fungus, not a plant.
Category — yin-nourishing; a food-medicine, at home in the kitchen as much as the formula
Nature — neutral
Flavor — sweet, bland
Channels — Lung, Stomach, Kidney
Actions — nourishes yin · moistens the Lung · benefits the Stomach and generates fluids
Common names — snow fungus, snow mushroom, silver ear, white wood ear
Part used — the dried fruiting body
FIELD NOTES
Tremella begins its life invisibly. For most of its existence it is a single-celled yeast, a thin film on dead hardwood, waiting. It cannot feed by itself. It draws nutrients from a second fungus, a species of Annulohypoxylon that feeds on the wood. Tremella then blooms into the form we recognize: a pale, translucent cluster of ruffled lobes, something between a chrysanthemum and a sea sponge.
English mycologist Miles Joseph Berkeley named the species in 1856 from specimens gathered in Brazil, and it grows across the tropics and subtropics. Its cultural home is China. Growers in Tongjiang, Sichuan, have raised it on logs for more than two hundred years. The modern harvest, centered on Gutian in Fujian, depends on an insight that took generations to reach: the silver ear and its companion must be planted together. Cultivators call the partner 香灰菌 (xiānghuījūn), "incense-ash fungus."
Dried tremella is brittle and ivory-colored, almost weightless. Soak it and it swells into soft, glossy folds. It turns into a silky broth after a slow simmer in water. Its power to take up and hold water, explains nearly everything that follows.
THE CLASSICAL RECORD
Tremella has long been food first and medicine second; the materia medica describes it as: sweet and bland, neutral, entering the Lung, Stomach, and Kidney. It nourishes yin, moistens the Lung, and generates fluids.
Its oldest trace is in the Shennong Bencao Jing, the earliest Chinese materia medica. There, within the entry for mulberry root bark, a single line speaks of the wood ears that grow on five kinds of trees:
五木耳，名檽。益气，不饥，轻身，强志。 The five wood ears, called ruǎn. They augment qi, keep hunger away, lighten the body, and strengthen the will.
The line names the family, not yet the white ear on its own. Tremella's separate identity, and its reputation for moistening, belong to the later materia medica.
The pattern it treats is dryness: dry throat, dry cough with little to bring up, thirst that water does not quite quench, the depletion that lingers after a long illness or a long season of overwork. It is a gentle medicinal, more food than drug, taken in small amounts over weeks.
Tremella is also food for the skin according to Chinese Medicine theory. The Lung governs the skin and body hair (肺主皮毛, fèi zhǔ pí máo), and autumn dryness (秋燥, qiū zào) is the season when both are easily parched. When Lung yin runs low, the surface shows it first: skin feels tight and looks dull, lips that crack, a lack-lustre complexion. During drier months, Tremella soup is a classic sweet tonic to revive dry skin and moisten respiratory tract.
THE CHEMISTRY
The silky texture in tremella comes from polysaccharide. Tremella's fruiting body is rich in long, branching sugar chains built on a backbone of mannose, with side chains of glucuronic acid, xylose, and fucose. Some of these molecules are large, reaching molecular weights in the millions of daltons. Large, branched, and studded with water-loving groups, they hold water the way a sponge does.
This is why tremella is so often compared with hyaluronic acid. Although the two are different molecules, they behave alike: both bind water and form a soft, breathable film. In one small study, a test formula containing 0.1% tremella extract reduced water loss through the skin by 12.4% compared with the same formula without it.
Researchers have also looked beyond hydration. Early research suggests that tremella polysaccharides may help skin cells stand up to oxidative stress, and that, taken internally, they may help skin hold on to its moisture and collagen under ultraviolet light. The science is still new, but it offers a molecular insight of what TCM classical texts describe: a substance that restores hydration.
The traditional idea of nourishing yin and the modern science of water-binding polymers speak in different languages. Read side by side, each makes the other easier to understand.
AS AN INGESTIBLE
Tremella is rarely prescribed but often cooked. Its classic form is 银耳羹 (Yín ěr Gēng), a sweet silky soup, usually with companions that share its moistening nature: lotus seed, lily bulb, pear, goji berries, red dates, a little rock sugar. It has almost no flavor of its own. What it gives is texture, and time: the longer the simmer, the silkier the bowl.
Note: Tremella is deeply moistening, so it is not the right choice for a cough that comes with chills and thin, clear phlegm, or for anyone already weighed down by dampness.
Prepare it with care: soak dried tremella for a few hours, in the refrigerator if it will be longer, and never eat fungi that have been left soaking for a day or more. Discard any that smell off or turn slimy and yellow. As with all herbs, anyone pregnant, managing a medical condition, or taking prescription medication should consult a licensed practitioner first.
AS A TOPICAL
On the skin, tremella draws moisture into the top layers of the skin and leaves a thin, light layer that helps keep it there, so skin feels soft and comfortable longer. It doesn't feel sticky or look shiny, and layers well with richer ingredients.
Tremella is water-soluble which is why it’s in mists, essences, light creams, and sheet masks. It works best on skin that is still slightly damp, because there is more water for it to hold.
ITS ROLE IN A YINA FORMULATION
Tremella appears in three of our formulas, as an ingredient that holds water in place so the others can do their work.
The first three botanicals in our mist read like a classical prescription for dryness: 麦门冬 (Mài Mén Dōng), ophiopogon; 西洋参 (Xī Yáng Shēn), American ginseng; and tremella. All three nourish yin and generate fluids. Together they make the mist the yin step of the ritual, the layer of water everything else is built on.
Here tremella sits beside our Ginseng Complex and centella. The ginsengs bring qi, the movement and vitality of the formula. Tremella brings yin, the moisture that qi needs to carry. It is part of why the cream feels cushioned but never heavy.
In the mask, tremella joins pearl, white peony root, and ginseng in the serum that saturates the biocellulose. A mask is tremella's ideal setting: fifteen to thirty minutes of contact with a water-rich formula, with the sheet keeping evaporation at bay.
养生 · THE SELF CARE RITUAL
The practice. After cleansing, while your skin is still damp, close your eyes and mist the face, neck, and chest with Essential Mist liberally. Press your cheeks slowly, move to the forehead, then the neck. Follow with your serum and a small amount of Hydracloud Cream, warmed between the hands.
Before you finish, rest your fingertips in the soft hollow beneath the outer end of each collarbone. This is the home of LU 1 中府 (Zhōng Fǔ) and LU 2 云门 (Yún Mén), where the Lung channel begins. Hold with gentle pressure and take five slow breaths, letting each exhale run a little longer than the inhale.
Once a week, give the same attention to a mask. Put a pot of silver ear on the stove, simmer, and enjoy it as light nourishment for your skin.
This is yang sheng: nourishing life through small, everyday acts. Skin does not stay hydrated from one application. It needs some care each day, and a little more in the dry months.
SELECTED SOURCES
Wu Y-J et al., "Structure, bioactivities and applications of the polysaccharides from Tremella fuciformis mushroom: A review," Int J Biol Macromol 121 (2019): 1005–1010 · Li S et al., "Recent advances in polysaccharides from Tremella fuciformis: isolation, structures, bioactivities and application," Front Nutr (2025) · Woźniak B et al., "Optimization of the Composition of a Cosmetic Formulation Containing Tremella fuciformis Extract (Fungi)," Cosmetics 10(3) (2023): 82 · Shen T et al., "Tremella fuciformis polysaccharide suppresses hydrogen peroxide-triggered injury of human skin fibroblasts via upregulation of SIRT1," Mol Med Rep 16(2) (2017): 1340–1346 · Wen L et al., "Effect of polysaccharides from Tremella fuciformis on UV-induced photoaging," J Funct Foods 20 (2016): 400–410.
This entry is offered for education. It is not medical advice and it is not a diagnosis. Please consult a licensed practitioner of Chinese medicine before beginning any internal herbs.
