The Chemistry of Mushrooms: A Survey of Novel Extraction Techniques Targeted to Chromatographic and Spectroscopic Screening [Chapt. 9]

The fascinating kingdom of fungi offers a great variety of bioactive compounds. Some species of mushrooms have gained enormous success in traditional medicine, as in the case of Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) or Lentinus edodes (Shiitake), both possessing powerful actions against viruses, microbes, and tumor cells. Several are the substances isolated and identified from mushrooms, which exert beneficial effects on human health. For this reason, the international production of mushrooms has grown bigger, due to the exploitation of their biologically active constituents in the formulation of dietary supplements or medicines by the pharmaceutical and food industries. The large employment of fungi by humans worldwide is of course subjected to regulatory restrictions, directed toward the assessment of standards of quality and safety for individuals. As a consequence, sensitive, selective, robust, and convenient extraction techniques are needed for the isolation of bioactive components, either for the preparation of formulations or for the investigation of new substances. The scope of this review is to present the most recent applications in the field of fungi chemistry, based on the use of novel extraction methodologies (ie, “miniaturized” and “green”). This survey will also cover all the aspects related to the analytical determination of bioactive substances isolated from mushrooms, in terms of advanced chromatographic and spectroscopic instrumentation, such as multidimensional liquid and gaseous chromatography.