Wood ear have been used in China for almost 1,000 years, with evidence of wood ear mushrooms being used in both culinary and medicine dating back to the Tang era (618-907AD). Native Indians, as well as Europeans in recent centuries, used them medicinally.

Jelly ear, called as ‘wood ears’ in Chinese cuisine, is a common ingredient. It was used medicinally until the 1860s, and it was assumed that fungi that resembled body parts could be utilised to heal those bodily parts. As a result, it was used to cure eye ailments (since eyes are gelatinous like the fungus) and throat problems (because the structure of jelly ear was thought to be similar to the one found in the throat).