Mushrooms: A Wealth of Nutraceuticals and An Agent of Bioremediation

Humans have ingested both wild and farmed mushrooms for their nutritional and therapeutic properties. Mushrooms are a good source of protein, carbohydrates, and dietary fiber compared to energy and fat. They are rich in vitamins like riboflavin, niacin, and folates, as well as minerals and trace elements like potassium and copper. Due to their distinct flavor, they have been eaten as food for ages. Aside from being a nutrient-dense diet, certain mushrooms are also considered a rich source of physiologically active chemicals with potential therapeutic value in Chinese medicine. Phenolic chemicals, sterols, and triterpenes are examples of bioactive secondary metabolites that occur in mushrooms. Mushrooms are essential in traditional medicine for their healing powers and characteristics, as well as their long history as a food source. It has been shown to have positive benefits on health and the treatment of certain ailments. Mushrooms have a variety of nutraceutical qualities, including the prevention or treatment of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, hypertension, and stroke risk. Due to their antitumoral properties, they are also used to lower the likelihood of cancer invasion and metastasis. Mushrooms are antimicrobial, antioxidant, immune system boosters, and cholesterol-lowering agents, and essential bioactive compounds. Mushrooms and mushroom derivatives may have health benefits if included in our daily diet. 

Malignancies have been among the diseases which claim most of the lives around the globe. They also impact the socioeconomic level as well as emotional detriments among the near and dear ones. Various strategies and interventions have been devised to combat these life-threatening conditions. The ill effects associated with synthetic drugs comprising most of the anticancer drugs enforce looking for an alternative source for molecules with therapeutic potential. Mushrooms are one of the most prominent sources of bioactive molecules with diverse medicinal properties. Various mushrooms have shown their ability to inhibit the proliferation of neoplastic cells both in in vitro and in vivo investigations. Mushrooms and their active constituents can affect the various Hallmarks of Cancer. Mushrooms are not only able to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells, but they also prevent the onset of carcinogenesis. The anti-angiogenic property of various mushrooms is indicated in several research investigations. The immunomodulatory potential and ability to avert metastasis also aid in the anticancer potential of this wonderful food item. Due to the high nutritive values of edible mushrooms, they have been suggested as nutraceuticals and contribute to nutritional management in diseases including cancer. The active constituents are also proven to have chemosensitizing ability. Preventive management of cancer and reverting chemoresistance have been sought as promising achievements in the clinical management of malignant conditions. Moreover, the nutritional values of mushrooms, along with their therapeutic potential at various fronts against cancer, make them a strong candidate for clinical application. This also warrants the careful exploration of mushrooms, their nutritive potential, and bioactive constituents against malignant disorders in laboratory and clinical settings.

Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality globally after cardiovascular diseases. It is attributed to various genetic and epigenetic changes in the genome, while lifestyle and environmental factors have a say in its rate of progression. Conventional agents like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgical interventions though successful to some extent, are always associated with toxic side effects. A promising alternative could be herbs that form a part of our daily consumption. Mushrooms consumed worldwide have been found to be a treasure of macromolecules like β-glucan, α-glucan, resveratrol, concanavalin A, cibacron blue affinity protein, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, ergosterol, linoleic acid, etc. that are responsible for mediating anti-tumor, immunomodulatory, antioxidant and anti-diabetic roles. Various experiments have demonstrated the potential of mushrooms as an anti-cancer agent. This chapter summarizes the effect of mushroom extracts and bioactive constituents against various hallmarks of cancer like sustained proliferation, evading apoptosis, angiogenesis, immune evasion and metastasis, along with underlying mechanisms. At the end of the chapter, we also talked about what still can be done and where we need to focus so that future studies can add to the already existing knowledge about this natural reservoir of anti-cancer compounds.

Mushrooms are macrofungi, with distinct mycelia structure, and fruiting bodies, divided into stalk and cap that contains spores in most of the species. These mushrooms are edible with diverse therapeutic applications. Old civilizations from India, China, and Korea used these mushrooms to cure diseases, especially diabetes. Diabetes is now a newly emerging pandemic, affecting people worldwide, with special reference to developing countries. There are several medications available for the management of diabetes, but their permanent treatment is still to be explored. Due to synthetic medicines and their adverse effect, people are searching for natural therapeutic agents. Many mushroom species have shown their potential to control diabetes and its related complications, such as weight loss, lipidemia, hypertension, etc. In this chapter, we have discussed five different mushroom species, i.e., Auricularia auricula-judae, Agaricus bisporus, Ophiocordycep sinensis, Ganoderma lucidum, and Pleurotus species with their potential therapeutic application against diabetes and its related complications. 

The 21st century enters a “post-antibiotic world,” with just a few alternatives for combating antibiotic-resistant microbial strains. The search for new antimicrobials which could overcome the situation of antimicrobial resistance is of prime importance and the need of hour. Herbal antimicrobials pose a plethora of new antimicrobial drug discoveries. Mushrooms give rise to a number of bioactive chemicals that are known to have anti-pathogenic qualities as well as safer and more effective therapeutic effects in the treatment of human diseases. As a result, this chapter emphasises that mycoconstituents might be an alternate treatment regimen and could play a role in novel drug discovery against various infections. This chapter contains information about the potential use of mycoconstituents in the management and treatment of infectious diseases. The approaches illustrate the importance of primary screening of bioactive molecules from mushrooms as a potential step by offering new possibilities for clinical and pharmacological research and development. Traditional antibiotics can now be substituted with newer and more effective natural antimicrobials derived from mushroom extracts to treat a variety of fatal and multi-drug resistant infectious diseases. As a result, this functional food extract might play a significant role in naturally combating infections and offering a comprehensive approach to treatments. Finally, we will go through the mechanics of mushroom antimicrobial potentials and presents an insight into “Mycotherapy”. 

Mushrooms are fungi that are consumed all over the world and contain bioactive nutritive components with nutritional and therapeutic qualities. Protein, minerals, vitamins and antioxidants are all found in edible mushrooms. Selenium, vitamin C, and choline are antioxidants that help the human body remove free radicals. Antimicrobial, antiviral, anticancer, anti-allergic, immunomodulation, anti-inflammatory, anti-atherogenic, hypoglycemic, hepatoprotective, and antioxidant properties of mushrooms. Primary and secondary metabolites can be found in mushrooms. The primary metabolites are energy-producing, but the secondary metabolites have therapeutic qualities. As the bioactive molecule has a pharmacological effect, researchers have recently focused on extracting it. As a result, the mushroom has the potential to be a recipe for human health and play a key role in the battle against COVID-19 pandemics and other infectious illnesses. Mushrooms and their biomolecules have therapeutic properties in a variety of diseases, including cardiovascular, diabetes, reproductive problems, cancer, and neurological disorders. A computer method, or in silico technology, is promising early evidence for drug development. Molecular docking studies have discovered bioactive chemicals from natural items like mushrooms as possible inhibitors against various diseases.

The advent of industrialization and urbanization has caused rapid production of various types of domestic, agricultural, medical and technological goods, such as different types of pesticides, herbicides, cyanotoxin, heavy metals, antibiotics, dyes, phthalates, etc. Production of these substances has led to the production of enormous amount of waste materials. Inappropriate discharge and uncontrolled drainage of these waste materials into the environment have caused their accumulation in the surrounding environment, causing serious health problems and destroying our ecosystem. Different methods such as physical, chemical and biological have been adopted to eliminate these waste materials. However, these methods are cost-effective and have some side effects. Hence, in this chapter, efforts have been made to understand the fungal enzymes involved in remediation processes, and their role and the mechanism of action of fungi have been depicted. Besides that, we have also discussed different categories of waste and their remediation using fungi, which is an eco-friendly biological approach to remediate toxic materials. 

Heavy metals have economic importance in industrial applications and are presently becoming a significant environmental concern. Components of heavy metals like As, Cd, Cr, Pb, Se, and Hg are considered systemic toxicants and induce various organ damage even at lower levels of exposure. Natural sources include metallurgy of metal-bearing rocks and volcanic eruptions, whereas mining and different industrial and agricultural operations are human sources to release them into the environment. In recent times, remediation of toxic metal pollution has been a major environmental and technological challenge all over the world. Several physiochemical strategies have been used in the past to remove heavy metals from the environment. But, it has adverse repercussions, including power dissipation, incompetence for inherently dangerous ions, pernicious by-products, and high cost; hence, alternative strategies are necessary. Biosorption and its operational processes have been very effective in the removal of hazardous heavy metals and display features like eco-friendly, high efficiency, and economic viability, and can be used repeatedly, showing selective metal binding, effective desorption, and recycling of adsorbents. Different biological agents like algae, bacteria, fungi, and yeast can be employed to carry out bioremediation, especially mycoremediation. The potential of fungal biomass (Mushrooms) as a biosorbent is well accepted for the removal of toxic heavy metals and radionuclides from the environment because of its excellent metal-binding characteristics and tolerance towards metals and unfavourable environmental conditions like diverse pH and temperature conditions. Mushrooms, macro-fungi, have fruiting bodies that grow out of a mass of mycelium and can build up heavy metals in high concentrations in their bodies above maximum permissible concentrations and may also act as an effective biosorption tool. High accumulation potential and shorter life span are some of the advantages of using mushrooms as biosorbents and exhibiting excellent mycoremediation potential.

Heavy metal pollution has become an emerging issue worldwide owing to its high toxicity, non-biodegradability and persisting nature. Thus, it shows high bioaccumulative ability in the living system that may lead to carcinogenicities and several health complications in humans, even at trace concentrations. Their genesis occurs via both natural as well as anthropogenic activities that have contributed to an unusual increase in the concentration of toxic heavy metals across the globe. Several conventional methods, namely chemical precipitation, ion exchange, and membrane filtration, are being implied for the elimination of recalcitrant metals persisting in the ecosystem. But these methods have their own shortcomings and offer many limitations when applied to large volumes and fewer metal concentrations. In this regard, an alternative treatment method is needed that will overcome major demerits while remediating pollutants at a large scale without generating any secondary pollutants. Hence, a variant of the sorption technique, i.e., biosorption, appeared as economical and eco-friendly alternative treatment technology which is characterized by utilizing a material of biological origin. Further, in this process, the binding of passive cations might occur through living or nonliving biomass and aid in the elimination of contaminants from the aquatic system. The origin of biosorbents may vary in terms of the different microorganisms used. However, the biomass of macrofungi or mushrooms has been apprehended as a reassuring class of low-cost adsorbents in effacing toxic ions. This is because the cell walls of macrofungi are enriched with several functional groups that provide key aspects in the biosorption process. In this chapter, the biosorptive propensity of different mushrooms toward metal ions has been accented, and also insights into mechanisms of biosorption are discussed.

The enzyme xylanase breaks down the linear polysaccharide β-1,4-xylan into xylose, therefore breaking down hemicellulose, one of the primary components of plant cell walls. It is essential for the breakdown of plant materials into usable nutrients by microorganisms that thrive on plant sources. Fungi, bacteria, yeast, marine algae, protozoans, snails, crustaceans, insects, seeds, and other organisms generate xylanases. However, the amount of xylanase produced by fungal cultures is generally significantly larger than that produced by yeasts or bacteria. There is a growing demand for low-cost microbial xylanolytic enzymes that have industrial uses and are commercially manufactured. The chlorine-free whitening of wood pulp preparatory to the papermaking process and the enhanced digestibility of silage are two commercial applications for xylanase. Aside from the pulp and paper industry, xylanases are used in wheat flour for ethanol production, improving dough handling and quality of baked products, as food additives in poultry, clarification of fruit juices, biofuel production, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and chemical industries. Improved knowledge of the biological characteristics and genetics of fungal xylanase will allow these enzymes to be used in a variety of novel biotechnological and commercial applications.