Chapters authored
Wild Medicinal Mushrooms: Potential Applications in Phytomedicine and Functional Foods
The accumulated secondary metabolites in medicinal mushrooms have been widely accepted as sources of safe and effective nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, and pharmaceuticals. Medicinal and edible mushrooms are foods appreciated for their exquisite flavor and medicinal properties. The nutritional values and biologically active compounds in mushrooms have immense potentials for producing new drugs of great health benefits to mankind. In recent times, medicinal mushrooms are being exploited for new and natural compounds that could modulate immune cell’s response, and possess antimicrobial, antioxidants, and anticancer properties. In Nigeria, where there is vegetation that supports the luxuriant growth of varieties of naturally occurring macrofungi, some of the wild macrofungi have not been properly identified, adequately studied, and fully harnessed for their potentials as food and medicine. It is therefore pertinent to bring to limelight the nutraceutical potentials of some of these wild macrofungi that are currently underutilized.
Part of the book: An Introduction to Mushroom