ABSTRACT
Mushrooms have at least 14,000 species and maybe as many as 22,000. The world’s total number of mushroom species is believed to be 140,000 with just 10% of them known. Estimating that only 5% of the undiscovered and unexamined mushrooms are beneficial, this means that there are 7,000 species yet to be identified that could be of service to mankind. Mushrooms are significant components of minor forest products that grow on the biosphere’s most abundant biomolecule—cellulose. The mushroom’s fruiting body is visible, while the majority of the mushroom remains underground as mycelium. Mushrooms were present in the world long before man arrived, as proven by fossil records from the lower cretaceous period. Since antiquity, people have been foraging for wild mushrooms. Due to their chemical composition, which is appealing from the nutritional aspect, fungi have been used as a source of food. Mushrooms were ingested in the early days of civilisation primarily for their flavour and palatability.
