Medicinal mushrooms as a new source of natural therapeutic bioactive compounds

Abstract

In the ancient books of traditional medicines, medicinal mushrooms were occupying the headlines, and the main topics were confirming to their miraculous therapeutic powers. The presence of various phenolic compounds, polysaccharides, and terpenoids and other compounds, is the reason for their potent biological activities as anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiaging, hepatic protective, hypoglycemic, hypocholesterolemic, and much more biological activities are discovered every day. Many mushroom genera are famous for their promising therapeutic capabilities. One of the mushrooms genera attracting attention is Cordyceps which has long been used in Asian countries for maintaining long and healthy life. Numerous studies on different metabolic activities of Cordyceps have been performed both in vitro and in vivo. This review describes the importance of medicinal mushrooms with focus on Cordyceps as an example of globally commercialized mushrooms.