Bioactive Glucans from Edible Mushrooms: A Review

Abstract

Health promoting glucans are natural polysaccharides obtained from fungi, yeast, bacteria and plants. The glucans showed different pharmacological activities like immunomodulatory, antibacterial, antiviral and antitumor/cancer effects. A high level of biological activity was found in glucans, especially β-(1→3)-D-glucans, β-(1→6)-D-glucans and β-(1→3), (1→6)-D-glucans from some edible mushrooms and branched glucans having large molecular weights can also activate immune cells. The (1→3)-β-glucans are attractive materials not only in biotechnology but also in nanotechnology due to its strong helix-forming character. This review summarized the available knowledge of the structure of glucans, along with biological activities from different mushrooms.