ABSTRACT
Mushrooms have been used in many aspects of the human activity for many years. Some of these mushrooms have been termed “medicinal mushrooms” due to their various morphological, physiological, and ecological characteristics that are also responsible for their diversity. Medicinal mushrooms produce a wide range of bioactive compounds that confer certain pharmacological activities on medicinal mushrooms for the amelioration of chronic diseases associated with oxidative stress. Hence, mushrooms have gained a lot of attention as a functional food and for the development of drugs and nutraceuticals. This chapter discusses chemical composition, nutritional composition, and bioactivities of medicinal mushrooms. The chapter also reviews selected medicinal mushrooms’ nutraceuticals with proven pharmacological properties.
