ABSTRACT
Mushrooms were originally defi ned as macrofungi with a distinctive fruiting body, which can either be hypogeous or epigeous, large enough to be seen with the naked eye and to be picked by hand (Chang and Miles 1992). Mushrooms constitute at least 14,000 and perhaps as many as 22,000 known species. Other studies have reported that the number of mushroom species on earth is estimated to be 140,000, indicating that only 10% are known (Lindequist et al. 2005). For millennia, mushrooms have been valued by human kind as an edible and medical resource. Extracts from certain mushrooms could have profound health promoting benefi ts and, consequently, became essential components in traditional medicine. There are at least 270 species of mushrooms that are known to possess various therapeutic properties (Ying et al. 1987) and the term ‘medicinal mushroom’ is now increasingly gaining worldwide recognition. Edible mushrooms which demonstrate medicinal or functional properties include species of Lentinula, Hericium, Grifola, Flammulina, Pleurotus and Tremella while others known only for their medicinal properties, viz. Ganoderma lucidum, Trametes versicolor, and Fomes fomentarius, are decidedly non-edible because of their coarse texture and bitter taste (Smith et al. 2002). For medicinal purposes, they were almost always prepared either as hot water extracts, concentrates or in powdered form (Gregori et al. 2007, Sanodiya al. 2009). Recent years have seen a surge of commercial interest in medicinal mushroom products, the common market value of which is approximately $13 billion US dollars (Wasser 2005).
