Environmental biomonitoring has demonstrated that organisms such as crustaceans, fish and mushrooms are useful to evaluate and monitor both ecosystem contamination and quality. Particularly, some mushroom species have a high capacity to retain radionuclides and some toxic elements from the soil and the air. The potential of mushrooms to accumulate radionuclides in their fruit-bodies has been we...

D-Mannitol, one of the main phytochemicals of the edible Tamogi-take mushroom (Pleurotus cornucopiae), was found to inhibit an angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE). The antihypertensive effect of D-mannitol and a hot water extract of Tamogi-take mushroom was demonstrated in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) by oral administration.

It is estimated that there are over 5,000 species of mushrooms worldwide. Some of them are edible and some are poisonous due to containing significant toxins. In more than 95% of mushroom toxicity cases, poisoning occurs as a result of misidentification of the mushroom by an amateur mushroom hunter. The severity of mushroom poisoning may vary, depending on the geographic location where the mush...

I think all readers of this book belong to the former and not the latter. Knowledge of numerous new mushroom species has accumulated through time. The number of recognized mushroom species has been reported to be 14,000, which is about 10% of the total estimated mushroom species on the earth (Hawksworth, 2001). China is estimated to have about 1500–2000 edible mushroom species with 981 species ...

A compressive description of tropical milky white mushroom (Calocybe indica P&C var. APK2) is provided in this review. This mushroom variety was first identified in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and can be cultivated on a wide variety of substrates, at a high temperature range (30~38℃). However, no commercial cultivation was made until 1998. Krishnamoorthy 1997 rediscovered the fungus...

Many of the most widely consumed edible mushrooms are pigmented, and these have been associated with some beneficial health effects. Nevertheless, the majority of the reported compounds associated with these desirable properties are nonpigmented. We have previously reported that melanin pigment from the edible mushroom Auricularia auricula can protect mice against ionizing radiation, although n...

Hericium erinaceus a culinary and medicinal mushroom is a well established candidate for brain and nerve health. Ganoderma lucidum, Grifola frondosa and Sarcodon scabrosus have been reported to have neurite outgrowth and neuronal health benefits. The number of mushrooms, however, studied for neurohealth activity are few compared to the more than 2 000 species of edible and / or medicinal mushro...

Coremiopleurotus (Pleurotus cystidiosus O.K. Miller) is studied for its taxonomic, cultural, molecular features and nutraceutical attributes and illustrated based on collection from Patiala in Punjab (India). It is a wood decaying edible basidiomycetous mushroom, characterized by the formation of specialized anamorphic structures called coremia. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region sequenci...

The aim of this study was to obtain preliminary results on the antibacterial activity of edible mushroom Laetiporus sulphureus. Since ethanolic extract of the mushroom was already established to possess good antimicrobial activity, herein we report the antibacterial activity of methanolic extracts out of three different localities. Four Gram-negative and four Grampositive bacterial strains, whi...