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.

The mushrooms have contributed to the development of active ingredients of fundamental importance in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry as well as of important tools in human and animal health, nutrition, and functional food. This review considers studies on the beneficial effects of medicinal mushrooms on the nutrition and health of humans and farm animals. An overview of the chemical structure and composition of mycochemicals is presented in this review with particular reference to phenolic compounds, triterpenoids and sterols, fatty acids and lipids, polysaccharides, proteins, peptides, and lectins. The nutritional value and chemical composition of wild and cultivated mushrooms in Italy is also the subject of this review which also deals with mushrooms as nutraceuticals and the use of mushrooms in functional foods. The nutraceutical benefits of UV irradiation of cultivated species of basidiomycetes to generate high amounts of vitamin D2 is also highlighted and the ability of the muhsrooms to inhibit glycation is analyzed. Finally, attention is paid to studies on bioactivities of some Italian wild and cultivated mushrooms with particular reference to species belonging to the genus Pleurotus. The review highlights the potential of medicinal mushrooms in the production of mycochemicals that represent a source of drugs, nutraceutical, and functional food. Graphic abstract

A growing number of studies is focusing on the pharmacology and feasibility of bioactive compounds as a novel valuable approach to target a variety of human diseases related to neurological degeneration. Among the group of the so-called medicinal mushrooms (MMs), Hericium erinaceus has become one of the most promising candidates. In fact, some of the bioactive compounds extracted from H. erinaceus have been shown to recover, or at least ameliorate, a wide range of pathological brain conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injury. In a large body of in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies on the central nervous system (CNS), the effects of erinacines have been correlated with a significant increase in the production of neurotrophic factors. Despite the promising outcome of preclinical investigations, only a limited number of clinical trials have been carried out so far in different neurological conditions. In this survey, we summarized the current state of knowledge on H. erinaceus dietary supplementation and its therapeutic potential in clinical settings. The bulk collected evidence underlies the urgent need to carry out further/wider clinical trials to prove the safety and efficacy of H. erinaceus supplementation, offering significant neuroprotective applications in brain pathologies.