Unlocking Reishi’s secrets: nutritional and medicinal traits of Ganoderma lucidum isolated from tree bark in Egypt

Ganoderma lucidum is an edible mushroom with high consumption rates in many cultures especially East Asian. This study assessed the in-vitro antimicrobial, antitumor, antiviral as well as antioxidant capacity of Ganoderma lucidum water extract (GLWE). Different microorganisms (standard strain bacteria and clinical isolates) were affected by mushroom aqueous extract, with inhibition zone diameters ranging between 16.1 and 38.8 mm. The MTT assay was used to evaluate antitumor efficacy against three distinct tumor cell lines: HepG-2 (liver tumor cell line), MCF-7 (breast tumor cell line), in addition to Caco2 (colorectal carcinoma cell line). GLWE was found to be safe for Vero cells (CC₅₀ 5237 ± 1.6 µg/mL) and had detectable anticancer efficacy against all tested cell lines with IC₅₀ ranges from 99.06 to 198.1 µg/mL. The Petricevich and Mendonça technique was used to test the antiviral activity against herpes simplex virus-1 together with Human adeno virus-7. The findings demonstrated modest antiviral activity, with EC₅₀ values of 493.8 ± 0.98 and 607.1 ± 1.9 µg/mL and corresponding selectivity indices of 10.6 and 8.62, respectively. On studying the antioxidant capacity of GLWE by using DPPH and ABTS, a potential activity with IC₅₀ values of 23.69 ± 0.85 and 14.79 ± 0.92 µg /mL, respectively, were obtained. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry in addition to high-performance liquid chromatography analysis indicated a diverse range of compounds including Ganoderic acids, Lucidenic acids, Ganolucidic acids, and Ganoderenic acids which are characteristic triterpenoids to the genus Ganoderma, as well as some polyphenols and flavonoids. In addition, some water/fat soluble vitamins were also detected, as well as proteins and carbohydrates contributing to the high nutritional value of the studied mushroom.