Organo Gold CEO and founder Bernardo Chua originally hails from the Philippines, and while he is now based in Vancouver, Canada, the Philippines will always be “home”. Chua first launched Organo Gold in 2008, and the Philippines was one of the first countries to embrace the OG opportunity, with its unique products and easy-to-follow business model. Since 2009 the company has continued to thrive in Chua’s homeland, with best-selling products including the OG Black Coffee and the OG Latte.
While it isn’t exactly a household name in the North American region, “Ganoderma” is a term that’s more well known in Asia, primarily because it has been used and revered by Eastern herbal medicine practitioners for literally thousands of years. But it is even more natural that the Filipinos have embraced the purportedly beneficial health properties of the Ganoderma lucidum mushroom. According to the National Museum of the Philippines, these wood-growing mushrooms germinate naturally in the nation’s cooler, heavily-wooded areas.
“As one of the most common wood-rotting fungi in the country, Ganoderma lucidum is found throughout the Philippines. Heralded in the orient for their health-stimulating properties, Ganoderma is cultivated for its medicinal values. Its pharmacology and clinical uses are being studied and it is now available in various medicinal forms (tablets and powder) in the Philippines,” says the museum website’s botany section. “It is also a main ingredient in some cosmetic products such as soaps, lotion, toothpaste, ointment, facial cream and moisturizer,” the website continues.
These include, of course, the Organo Gold family of products such as the OG Smile toothpaste, the Velvet Body Lotion, and the G3 Premium Beauty Soap, and the many health-affirming nutraceutical products, as well as the coffee, tea and cocoa beverages that are also enhanced with Ganoderma powder.
Sources: Government of Philippines, National Museum of Philippines