Nutritional Value and Nutraceutical Properties of Mushrooms

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Mushrooms are fleshy or macro fungi, belong to a special group in biological science, the Mycota and their descriptive science is called Mycology. Mushrooms have considerable interest in the most important civilizations in history because of their sensory characteristics. They have been recognized for their attractive culinary attributes. Presently mushrooms are common valuable foods because they have low calories, carbohydrates, fat, and sodium and are cholesterol-less vegetables. Besides, mushrooms have important nutrients, and are rich in selenium, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D, proteins, and fiber. Mushrooms have healing capacities and many properties of traditional medicines. They act as anti-fungal, antibacterial, immune system enhancers and cholesterol-lowering agents, and also are an important source of bioactive compounds. Due to the presence of these properties, a variety of mushroom extracts are used to promote human health and are found as dietary supplements. It has been reported that mushrooms have beneficial effects on health and are a good source of treatment for some diseases and disorders. Some of the nutraceutical properties in mushrooms are seen in the treatment of hypertension, high risk of stroke, Alzheimer's, in reducing the likelihood of cancer invasion and metastasis due to anti-tumoral attributes. Although there are a number of mushroom varieties having nutritional and nutraceutical properties, mostly are collected from nature (wild), whereas a few are cultivated on marginal and commercial label. Agaricus bisporus, species of Lentinula (Lentinus), Volvariella, Pleurotus, Calocybe, Auricularia, Flammulina, Ganoderma, Schizophyllum, Trametes and few others are among cultivated varieties in India and abroad. Considering the tremendous nutritional and medicinal qualities of different groups of these fleshy fungi, the cultivation of different varieties of mushrooms is increasing globally day by day.