Structural Features and Healthy Properties of Polysaccharides Occurring in Mushrooms

Ana Villares, Laura Mateo-Vivaracho and Eva Guillamón
Additional contact information
Ana Villares: Centre for the Food Quality, National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Campus Universitario Duques de Soria, c/José Tudela s/n, 42004, Soria, Spain
Laura Mateo-Vivaracho: Centre for the Food Quality, National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Campus Universitario Duques de Soria, c/José Tudela s/n, 42004, Soria, Spain
Eva Guillamón: Centre for the Food Quality, National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Campus Universitario Duques de Soria, c/José Tudela s/n, 42004, Soria, Spain

Agriculture, 2012, vol. 2, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Polysaccharides from mushrooms have attracted a great deal of attention due to the many healthy benefits they have demonstrated, such as immunomodulation, anticancer activity, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, antiviral and antimicrobial effects, among others. Isolation and purification of polysaccharides commonly involve several steps, and different techniques are actually available in order to increase extraction yield and purity. Studies have demonstrated that the molecular structure and arrangement significantly influence the biological activity; therefore, there is a wide range of analytical techniques for the elucidation of chemical structures. Different polysaccharides have been isolated from mushrooms, most of them consisting of β-linked glucans, such as lentinan from Lentinus edodes , pleuran from Pleurotus species, schizophyllan from Schizophyllum commune , calocyban from Calocybe indica , or ganoderan and ganopoly from Ganoderma lucidum . This article reviews the main methods of polysaccharide isolation and structural characterization, as well as some of the most important polysaccharides isolated from mushrooms and the healthy benefits they provide.

Keywords: polysaccharides; carbohydrates; mushroom; fungus; biological response modifier (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/2/4/452/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/2/4/452/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:2:y:2012:i:4:p:452-471:d:22299

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().