Polysaccharide-protein complexes from edible fungi and applications

Edible and medicinal fungi (mushrooms) have found wide and increasing applications in functional foods and nutraceutical products because of their proven nutritive and medicinal properties. Polysaccharides (PS) and PS-protein (PSP) complexes represent a major class of constituents of the edible fungi with notable bioactivities such as immunomodulation, antitumor, antioxidant, antiviral, and prebiotic. Commercial mushroom materials including PS and PS-rich hot-water extracts are mainly (>80 %) derived from cultivated mushrooms (in fruit form) and a smaller amount (˜15 %) from mycelial fermentation. Although the most common immunobioactive PS structures have a β-D-glucan main chain such as (1→3)-β-D-glucans and (1→6)-β-D-glucans with side chains, various other bioactive PS structures have also been documented such as α-D-glucans, glucomannans, and glycoproteins. In addition to functional food and therapeutic uses, mushroom PS and PSPs have also been applied as cosmeceutical ingredients.