Chemical Composition, Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Shiitake Mushrooms (Lentinus edodes)

Shiitake mushrooms (<i>Lentinus edodes</i>) are renowned as the "King of mountain treasures" in China due to their abundant nutritional and health-enhancing properties. Intensive chemical investigations of the fruiting bodies and mycelium of Shiitake mushrooms (<i>Lentinus edodes</i>) afforded five new compounds (<b>1-5</b>), named lentinmacrocycles A-C and lentincoumarins A-B, along with fifteen known compounds (<b>6-20</b>). Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis, including one-and two-dimensional (1D and 2D) NMR spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD), and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS). The anti-inflammatory activity test showed that lentincoumarins A (<b>4</b>), (3<i>S</i>)-7-hydroxymellein (<b>9</b>), (3<i>R</i>)-6-hydroxymellein (<b>11</b>) and succinic acid (<b>18</b>) exhibited strong NO inhibitory effects (IC₅₀ < 35 μM), and that (3<i>S</i>)-5-hydroxymellein (<b>10</b>) and (3<i>R</i>)-6-hydroxymellein (<b>11</b>) exhibited potent TNF-α inhibitory effects (IC₅₀ < 80 μM) and were more potent than the positive control, Indomethacin (IC₅₀ = 88.5 ± 2.1 μM). The antioxidant activity test showed that (3<i>R</i>)-6-hydroxymellein (<b>11</b>) had better DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC₅₀ = 25.2 ± 0.5 μM).