Mushroom: Food and Medicine

Human consumption of mushroom dates back to ancient times, Edible mushroom species have been found in association with 13,000-year-old archaeological sites in Chile. Ötzi, the mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE in Europe, was found with two types of mushroom. The Chinese value mushrooms for their supposed medicinal properties as well as for food Chinese culture even treasured mushrooms as an “elixir of life.” . Ancient Romans perceived them as the “Food of the Gods”, food tasters were employed by Roman emperors to ensure that mushrooms were safe to eat. and Greeks, particularly the upper classes, used mushrooms for culinary purposes they even believed that mushrooms provided strength for warriors in battle. Although records (archeological and written) is scant on when did human started consuming mushrooms scientist at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany has now explored diet of Magdalenian individuals found at El Mirón Cave in Cantabria, Spain through dental calculus analysis and found that Upper Palaeolithic individuals used a variety of plant foods and mushrooms as part of their diet.
Nowadays mushroom is fast becoming part of human regular diet they are low in calories, carbohydrates, fat, and sodium: also, they are cholesterol-free. Besides, mushrooms provide important nutrients, including selenium, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D, proteins, and fiber. All together with a long history as food source, mushrooms are important for their healing capacities and properties in traditional medicine.

Mushrooms and Fungi has reported beneficial effects for health and treatment of some diseases, nutraceutical properties are described in mushrooms, such as prevention or treatment of Parkinson, Alzheimer, hypertension, and high risk of stroke. They are also utilized to reduce the likelihood of cancer invasion and metastasis due to antitumoral attributes. Mushrooms act as antibacterial, immune system enhancer and cholesterol lowering agents; additionally, they are important sources of bioactive compounds. As a result of these properties, some mushroom extracts are used to promote human health and are found as dietary supplements. Mushrooms could be an alternative source of new antimicrobial compounds, mainly secondary metabolites, such as terpenes, steroids, anthraquinones, benzoic acid derivatives, and quinolones, but also of some primary metabolites like oxalic acid, peptides, and proteins. Lentinus edodes is the most studied species and seems to have an antimicrobial action against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
More than 100 medicinal functions are produced by mushrooms and fungi and the key medicinal uses are antioxidant, anticancer, antidiabetic, antiallergic, immunomodulating, cardiovascular protector, anticholesterolemic, antiviral, antibacterial, antiparasitic, antifungal, detoxification, and hepatoprotective effects; they also protect against tumor development and inflammatory processes.
Although the research of bioactive components in edible wild and cultivated mushrooms is yet deficient, there are numerous potential characteristics and old and novel properties, provided by mushrooms with nutraceutical and health benefits and it needs to be further studied and discover other mushroom and fungi that are not yet discovered and studied. Fungi and mushroom is not only beneficial to human health it also helps in cleaning up our environment, they perform duties that may help us solve some of the world’s most vexing problems.


Source
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4320875/
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