From time immemorial, mushrooms have been valued by humankind as a culinary wonder and folk medicine in Oriental practice. The last decade has witnessed the overwhelming interest of western research fraternity in pharmaceutical potential of mushrooms. The chief medicinal uses of mushrooms discovered so far are as anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic, hypocholesterolemic, anti-tumor, anti-cancer, immunomodulatory, anti-allergic, nephroprotective, and anti-microbial agents. The mushrooms credited with success against cancer belong to the genus Phellinus, Pleurotus, Agaricus, Ganoderma, Clitocybe, Antrodia, Trametes, Cordyceps, Xerocomus, Calvatia, Schizophyllum, Flammulina, Suillus, Inonotus, Inocybe, Funlia, Lactarius, Albatrellus, Russula, and Fomes. The anti-cancer compounds play crucial role as reactive oxygen species inducer, mitotic kinase inhibitor, anti-mitotic, angiogenesis inhibitor, topoisomerase inhibitor, leading to apoptosis, and eventually checking cancer proliferation. The present review updates the recent findings on the pharmacologically active compounds, their anti-tumor potential, and underlying mechanism of biological action in order to raise awareness for further investigations to develop cancer therapeutics from mushrooms. The mounting evidences from various research groups across the globe, regarding anti-tumor application of mushroom extracts unarguably make it a fast-track research area worth mass attention.

Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth of bifidogenic and lactic acid bacteria in the gastro-intestinal tract. Typically, the prebiotics consist of dietary fibers and oligosaccharides. Prebiotics exert a plethora of health-promoting effects, owing to which multi million food and pharma industries have been established. Prebiotics are being implicated in starter culture formulation, gut health maintenance, colitis prevention, cancer inhibition, immunopotentiaton, cholesterol removal, reduction of cardiovascular disease, prevention of obesity and constipation, bacteriocin production, use in fishery, poultry, pig, cattle feed and pet food. Looking at the ever-increasing demand of prebiotics, in this review, recent trends in prebiotic production from new novel sources, from food industrial wastes, prebiotic supplementation in food, commercially available prebiotic agents, prebiotic production by various techniques and future perspectives has been discussed. The critical insight into this hot research area aims to stimulate further ponderance.