Unlocking fungal fortunes: Cutting-edge extraction techniques and therapeutic possibilities of mushroom bioactive compounds

Abstract

Mushrooms have attracted worldwide attention because they have valuable food, medicine and nutraceutical resources. Numerous edible mushroom species that bloom in the forest have to be eaten by various tribes of the South Indian region just because of their exotic flavors and taste by partially understanding their nutritional and medicinal benefits. This norm, though culturally significant, highlights a gap in awareness of the broader therapeutic potential of mushrooms, justifying the need for research into their bioactive compounds. This review aims to bridge that knowledge gap by identification of wild mushrooms and their societal importance. Although, the potential use of wild/medicinal mushrooms, which have diverse bioactive compounds including amino acids, flavonoids, terpenoids, polyphenols, sterols, lactones, saponins, alkaloids, and polysaccharides that possess various therapeutic potential. Moreover, this review highlights the mushrooms dietary significance, toxicity status and medicinal properties. In addition, various extraction methods of nutritional components, and their advantages and limitations are discussed in this review with more focus on the recent research data in this context. Hence, this review focused to uncover the mushrooms medicinal activity such as anticancer, antioxidant, antidiabetic, antivirus, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. Finally, the clinical research, current challenges and future research trends of mushrooms and their bioactive compounds are briefly discussed.