Medicinal Mushrooms: Bioactive Compounds, Use, and
Clinical Trials
Giuseppe Venturella 1,* , Valeria Ferraro 1, Fortunato Cirlincione 1 and Maria Letizia Gargano 2
1 Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Bldg. 5, I-90128 Palermo, Italy; valeria.ferraro@unipa.it (V.F.); fortunato.cirlincione@unipa.it (F.C.)
2 Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Amendola 165/A, I-70126 Bari, Italy; marialetizia.gargano@uniba.it
* Correspondence: giuseppe.venturella@unipa.it; Tel.: +39-09123891234
Abstract
Medicinal mushrooms have important health benefits and exhibit a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities, including antiallergic, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antiviral, cytotoxic, immunomodulating, antidepressive, antihyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, digestive, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, nephroprotective, osteoprotective, and hypotensive activities. The growing interest in mycotherapy requires a strong commitment from the scientific community to expand clinical trials and to propose supplements of safe origin and genetic purity. Bioactive compounds of selected medicinal mushrooms and their effects and mechanisms in in vitro and in vivo clinical studies are reported in this review. Besides, we analyzed the therapeutic use and pharmacological activities of mushrooms.
Keywords
medicinal mushrooms; pharmaceutical properties; biomolecules; immunomodulation; antitumor property; dietary supplements; in vitro study; clinical trial; mycotherapy
