Drug & supplement interaction

Poria Mushroom + Mesalamine

Mesalamine brand names: Pentasa, Asacol, Canasa, Rowasa, Lialda, and others.

No Known Interaction
The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first. Additionally, although there is no interaction, the label for Mesalamine states a food rule worth keeping to, and the two are separately associated with some of the same side effects, which would make a new symptom harder to attribute to one or the other.

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Interaction report

Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Mesalamine and Poria Mushroom in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — there is often limited research on supplements and herbal products, especially around drug interactions.

If you decide to take both, the practical routine is simple: add one new thing at a time and note the date you started it. If the combination is going to disagree with you, it usually shows in the first days to a couple of weeks — and a start date turns “I’ve been feeling off” into something a pharmacist can actually work with. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Poria Mushroom safety at a glance

Poria Mushroom overall Use caution Generally well tolerated in traditional use, but human safety data are limited.
Pregnancy Avoid Not enough safety information, so it is best avoided during pregnancy.
Breastfeeding Avoid No reliable safety data while breastfeeding, so avoidance is recommended.

Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Mesalamine and Poria Mushroom? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›
How we checked

Why No Interaction Is Listed for Mesalamine

Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes, not just single drug names. Mesalamine is filed under a single classification — oral drugs. Poria Mushroom has documented interactions with 3 drug classes — the most serious being anticholinergic drugs (moderate), cholinergic drugs (moderate) and cns depressants (moderate) — and none of Mesalamine’s classifications are among them.

Classification data comes from our licensed Natural Medicines dataset. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded there, so this describes how the check was run — it is not a safety guarantee.

Keep it in perspective

Poria Mushroom Does Interact With Other Medications

Poria Mushroom has 417 moderate known drug interactions in our database — Mesalamine isn’t one of them. If you take anything else, check it against the full list below.

Taking anything else?

Check Another of Your Medications Against Poria Mushroom

Covers the 2,830 medications we’ve checked against Poria Mushroom. Pick one to open its full report.

What to actually watch for

No Interaction Found — But Data Suggests Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine May Share a Side Effect

This is not an interaction. Neither one changes how your body handles the other, and nothing here says they react together. What our sources do show is that each has separately been linked to the effects below — so taking both can make those effects more likely to turn up, and harder to pin on one or the other if they do. One of them is worth acting on rather than waiting out — marked below.

  • An allergic reaction Worth acting on Additional detail

    Poria Mushroom

    “Allergic reactions have been reported rarely, including allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma (12).”

    Poria Mushroom · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in allergic rhinitis (hay fever).

    1 source cited
    1. 12. McGuffin M, Hobbs C, Upton R, Goldberg A, eds. American Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, LLC 1997.

    Mesalamine

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Mesalamine. Read the label on DailyMed ›

Reported for Poria Mushroom but not commonly for Mesalamine: a stuffy or runny nose and wheezing.

Effects for Mesalamine come from the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of its FDA label; effects for Poria Mushroom come from the Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, quoted above. Wording is matched across sources by our own clinical vocabulary, so treat this as a prompt to pay attention, not a diagnosis.

How to take them

Some Mesalamine Products Have a Food Rule — Poria Mushroom Should Not Break It

At least one FDA label for a product containing Mesalamine says to take it with food. If you take Poria Mushroom on an empty stomach out of habit, keep them separate — and take Mesalamine with a meal where the label says to.

This may not be true of your version. Food instructions belong to the product, not the ingredient: two Mesalamine products can carry different directions, and extended-release forms often differ from immediate-release ones. The label we read is quoted below — check the directions on your own box or bottle, or ask your pharmacist, for how to take the exact product you were given.

( 2 ) Administer mesalamine delayed-release tablets with food.

From the Dosage and Administration section of the FDA label we read for Mesalamine — where that label names a specific product, the instruction is that product's. Read the label on DailyMed ›

A food rule is not an interaction — it is about how much of the medicine you absorb. The directions that came with your own product, and your pharmacist, outrank anything on this page.

From our Q&A

Questions About Poria Mushroom or Mesalamine

These are real questions from readers, answered by the pharmacists at HelloPharmacist — written by a person, not generated from a database. Each one covers Poria Mushroom or Mesalamine, not necessarily both, but if one is close to what you were about to ask it will usually go further than a database entry can:

Not quite your question? Ask our pharmacists directly — it is free, there is no account required, and answers usually come back within 24 hours.

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Mesalamine

This page covers Poria Mushroom only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Mesalamine page lists 17 supplements it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: Activated Charcoal (major), Coffee Charcoal (moderate), European Mandrake (moderate), Glucomannan (moderate) and Guar Gum (moderate).

By severity: 1 major · 7 moderate · 9 minor.

From our pharmacist’s overview on the Mesalamine page

“Activated charcoal is the one entry here I would treat as a genuine problem for anyone taking mesalamine (Asacol, Lialda, Pentasa, and others). It is the lone major-rated interaction among the 17 on file, because charcoal soaks up drugs in the gut and can pull mesalamine out of the picture before it does its job.”

Reviewed by 2 · Jul 18, 2026

Open the Mesalamine interaction page

One more smart check

Taking Poria Mushroom as Part of a Dietary Supplement Product? Check It for Interactions

We hold 1,303 real supplement products containing Poria Mushroom, each one broken down to its full ingredient list — and combination products often carry several ingredients besides Poria Mushroom. Even though Poria Mushroom itself has no known interaction with Mesalamine, another ingredient on your label might. Find your product and we’ll check every ingredient on its label:

How much people look this up

Where Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Poria Mushroom
Top 25%

#209 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today
Medication Mesalamine
Top 25%

#670 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?
  • Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
  • Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Poria Mushroom reference on this page ↓
  • Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 27, 2026. The Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine records this page draws on were last updated July 10, 2026.
  • What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.
Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by .
Supplement

About Poria Mushroom

What is Poria Mushroom?

  • Fluid retention and swelling
  • Digestive complaints
  • Sleep and calming support
  • General wellness and immune support
  • Urinary support

Poria mushroom (Fu Ling) is a fungus long used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, mainly as a mild diuretic and digestive and calming aid. Modern scientific evidence in humans is very limited, so its benefits are not well proven. It is generally considered well tolerated, but talk with your pharmacist or doctor before using it, and avoid it in pregnancy and breastfeeding due to a lack of safety data.

Wolfiporia extensa · Polyporaceae · Dried fungus body (sclerotium) · Dried slices, powder, capsules, teas, and ingredient in traditional herbal formulas

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Poria Mushroom is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Poria Mushroom record says about it on its own.

Poria Mushroom: dosing

There is no official, standardized dose of poria mushroom for any health condition. Do not exceed the recommended amount, and start low to see how you tolerate it.

From our Poria Mushroom monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Poria Mushroom monograph & all interactions
Medication

About Mesalamine

What Is Mesalamine Used For?

Brand names: Pentasa, Asacol, Canasa, Rowasa, Lialda, Delzicol

Mesalamine is used to treat mildly to moderately active ulcerative colitis — a condition where the lining of the large intestine becomes inflamed and ulcerated. Depending on the product and formulation, it can be used to bring the disease under control (induction of remission) and/or to keep it from coming back (maintenance of remission).

Different products target different parts of the lower digestive tract. Oral forms (tablets and capsules) treat the colon more broadly. Rectal forms — including enemas (ROWASA, sfROWASA, mesalamine rectal suspension) — are used for distal ulcerative colitis, proctosigmoiditis, or proctitis (inflammation limited to the lower end of the colon or rectum). Rectal suppositories (CANASA, mesalamine rectal suppositories) are specifically for ulcerative proctitis (inflammation of the rectum only).

See full Mesalamine drug information
Keep checking

Other Drugs & Poria Mushroom

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Poria Mushroom — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major
417Moderate
0Minor
2,412No known interaction
Moderate

417 interactions

Showing 60 of 417 moderate interactions — see all 417 on the Poria Mushroom page.

No interaction 2,412 drugs checked — show the list
Evidence & sources

Poria Mushroom References

The 3 references that drive our Poria Mushroom monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

  1. McGuffin M, Hobbs C, Upton R, Goldberg A, eds. American Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, LLC 1997.
  2. Kim H, Park I, Park K, Park S, Kim YI, Park BG. The positive effects of Poria cocos extract on quality of sleep in insomnia rat models. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022;19(11):6629. PubMed
  3. Lv Q, Di X, Bian B, Li K, Guo J. Neuroprotective effects of Poria cocos (Agaricomycetes) essential oil on Aß1-40-induced learning and memory deficit in rats. Int J Med Mushrooms 2022;24(10):73-82.

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Taking Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine Together: Common Questions

Is it safe to take Poria Mushroom with Mesalamine?
We do not list a known interaction between Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.
Do Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine have any of the same side effects?
Yes — our sources link each of them separately to one of the same effects. That is not an interaction: neither changes how your body handles the other. It does mean that if one of those effects turns up, it can be harder to tell which one is behind it. They are listed on this page with the source behind each.
Should I take Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine at the same time of day?
At least one FDA label for a product containing Mesalamine says to take it with food. If you take Poria Mushroom on an empty stomach out of habit, keep them separate and take Mesalamine with a meal where the label says to. Food instructions belong to the product rather than the ingredient — two Mesalamine products can differ — so check the directions on your own box. This is about absorption, not an interaction.
How was the Poria Mushroom and Mesalamine combination checked?
Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes. Mesalamine is filed under 1 classification, and Poria Mushroom has documented interactions with 3 drug classes — none of Mesalamine's classifications are among them. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded in our dataset, so this describes how the check was run rather than guaranteeing safety.
Does Poria Mushroom interact with any other medications?
Yes. Poria Mushroom has 417 documented drug interactions in our database — Mesalamine is simply not one of them. If you take anything else, it is worth checking each one; they are all listed on this page.
Does Mesalamine interact with any supplements?
Yes. Mesalamine has documented interactions with 17 supplements in our database — Poria Mushroom is not one of them. The Mesalamine interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Still Have a Question About Mesalamine and Poria Mushroom?

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.