Medicinal Mushrooms: Bioactive Components, Pharmacological, Immunological and Toxicological Insights

Abstract Medicinal mushrooms have acquired noteworthy scientific and restorative attention due to the presence of an array of bioactive compounds and vital therapeutic uses in traditional medicine. The current appraisal describes the versatile aspects of medicinal mushrooms counting their extraction techniques, chemical constituents, pharmacological actions, immunomodulatory potential and toxic effects. This review critically examines the classical and advanced methods for extracting the active components of medicinal mushrooms such as lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, and terpenoids. Therapeutic qualities like cardioprotective, antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, adaptogenic, anticancer, hepatoprotective, anti‐inflammatory, neuroprotective, and immunomodulatory effects are attributed to these substances. Mushrooms possess a variety of immunomodulatory mechanisms that interact with the immune system: macrophage activation, cytokine production, actuation of Natural Killer (NK) cells, T‐cell Activation, adaptive immune response, immune signaling pathway regulation, anti‐inflammatory effects and Myeloid‐Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSCs). Moreover, the current investigation summarizes the chemical, pharmacological and immunoodulatory profile of 98 medicinal mushrooms (like Agaricus bisporus , Cordyceps sinensis , Flammulina velutipes , Ganoderma lucidum , Grifola frondosa , Hericium erinaceus , Inonotus obliquus , Lentinus edodes and Trametes versicolor ). This collection shall serve as a repository of knowledge for researchers in the future who hope to study the medicinal mushrooms.