Medicinal mushroom: What should we know?

Abstract

Mushrooms are the epigeous fruiting bodies of terrestrial fungi and as they lack cellulose and chlorophyll, they have a different lifestyle to other nonmotile life, such as plants. Mushrooms have been documented for centuries as use as food and medicine as they are generous sources of nutrients and biologically active compounds that have various applications in agriculture, food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food related industries, and others. Research on various metabolic activities of medicinal mushrooms have been performed both in vitro and in vivo studies. Over the past two decades, medicinal mushrooms industry have developed greatly and today offers thousands of products to the markets. This paper describes the current status of some important world medicinal mushrooms, products, and provides suggestions for further research.