Mushrooms are considered as potential source of many essential nutrients and therapeutic bioactive compounds. Agaricus bisporus belongs to Basidiomycetes family and the most important commercially cultivated mushroom in the world. The rich nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, fibers, minerals, and vitamins present this mushroom as famous healthy food. Moreover, because of the presence of some active ingredients, such as polysaccharides, lipopolysaccharides, essential amino acids, peptides, glycoproteins, nucleosides, triterpenoids, lectins, fatty acids and their derivatives, these mushrooms have been reported to have antimicrobial, anticancer, antidiabetic, antihypercholesterolemic, antihypertensive, hepatoprotective and antioxidant activities. This study is focused on reviewing the recent studies published in the medical and nutritional properties of Agaricus bisporus. Investigations on the mushroom have accelerated during the last ten years so that only reports published after 2006 have been considered.

This review distinguishes myco-nanotechnology using metallic nanoparticles (meta-NPs) synthesized from edible mushroom matter. Green chemistry approaches were attempted to myco-synthesize meta-NPs (viz., Ag-NP, Au-NP, Se-NP, CdS-NP, Fe-NP, Pa-NP, and ZnS-NP) via different routes using edible mushrooms and have been tested toward 79% biomedical and 21% industrial applications. Biomaterials were used as biofactors to form metallic NPs. In mushroom science, mycomaterials of mushrooms were used at different percentages to mycosynthesize in an ecofriendly/green way; mycomaterials such as crude extracts of basidocarp (53%), mycelial extract or free cell filtrate (28%), in crude form or in purified form such as polysaccharides at different percentages; 9% (especially glucan), proteins/enzymes (7%) and polysaccharides protein complex (3%) as new research lines. Generally, in this field of mushroom nanoparticles about 84% of mycosynthesized NPs using mushrooms are placed outside the fungal cell (extracellular) and 16% are intracellular in the mushroom hyphae. The knowledge of the performance and influence of meta-NPs in edible mushrooms has developed in the last 10 years. Generally, while Agaricus bisporus was the first to be used in agricultural production Pleurotus spp. has the highest use (38%) in the formation of mushroom NPs. Furthermore, silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) have been biosynthesized more often in the fungi kingdom; also, Ag-NPs made up the largest part (64%) in the formation of nanoparticles in mushroom science. Mushroom meta-NPs usually have a spherical shape with sizes from 0.4 nm up to ≤300 nm but most of them are <75 nm. A few recent applications have affected the inhibition of the growth of human pathogenic bacteria by mushroom Ag-NPs in combination with antibiotics. Myco-synthesized meta-NPs using mushrooms, especially Ag-NPs, Au-NPs and Se-NPs, are potent against various cancer cell lines. Thus, these NPs can be used in numerous pharmaceutical drugs. Also, the transport of pharmaceutical drugs and biomaterials using NPs of edible mushrooms is considered a very undervalued and new application in the drug and gene fields. Mushroom meta-NPs were investigated for industrial applications such as inorganic NPs, carbon nanotubes and the treatment of waste as nano-biosorbents for the adsorption of toxic metals for cleaning the environment using eco-friendly natural materials for reducing the pollution of the environment in the future.

The spent mushroom substrate (SMS) is a byproduct of cultivation of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus spp.) and represents the composted substrate that remains after completion the harvested crop. This study mentioned the role of some effective date palm wastes in improving spent mushroom substrate properties which containing fibers of date palm Phoenix dactylifera L. (Fibrillum), mixed with white sawdust and wheat straw in three formulas. These mixtures of SMS namely, SMS1 (wheat straw), SMS2 (wheat straw 70%, sawdust 20% and date palm fiber 10%) and SMS3 (wheat straw 50%, sawdust 30% and date palm fiber 20%) were obtained from locally mushroom farm in western Iraq and sent to determine some properties such as moisture content, dry matter, EC, pH, ash, carbon, nitrogen, protein contents and C:N ratio. Generally, determinations of Hydrogen ion concentration (pH) for SMS extracts had acidic value at average 5.06. The higher EC was 3.30 ms/cm for SMS1-P. ostreatus (white), while the lower value reached to 1.13 ms/cm for SMS3 of same species. The higher nitrogen content was 9.98 g/kg for SMS3-P. ostreatus (white), SMS1 of Pleurotus salmoneostramineus and SMS2-P. ostreatus (white), while, SMS3-P. salmoneostramineus had lower nitrogen content (6.65 g/kg). The higher C:N ratio was reported with SMS3 of P. salmoneostramineus at value 35.36, while SMS2-P. ostreatus (grey) had ratio 22.03, significantly (p < 0.05). Overall, these SMS was suitable as a natural fertilizer and soil amender in agriculture and horticulture fields