Evaluation of Bioactive Compounds, Antioxidant Activity, and Anticancer Potential of Wild Ganoderma lucidum Extracts from High-Altitude Regions of Nepal

Author: mycolabadmin
8/5/2025
View Source

Summary

Researchers studied a medicinal mushroom called Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) collected from high mountains in Nepal to understand its health benefits. They tested different ways to extract beneficial compounds from the mushroom and found that using ethanol was most effective. The extracts showed strong cancer-fighting properties against cervical cancer cells and powerful antioxidant effects that may help protect the body from damage. These findings suggest this Himalayan mushroom has real therapeutic potential for treating cancer and other diseases.

Background

Ganoderma lucidum, known as Lingzhi, Reishi, or Dadu chyau in Nepal, is a medicinal mushroom with a 2000-year history of use in traditional medicine. Modern research has validated its therapeutic properties attributed to bioactive compounds including polysaccharides, triterpenes, phenolics, and flavonoids. Nepal’s high-altitude regions provide unique environmental conditions that may produce G. lucidum strains with enhanced bioactive profiles, yet therapeutic potential remains largely unexplored.

Objective

To identify key bioactive compounds in wild G. lucidum from Nepal’s high-altitude regions and assess the influence of different extraction solvents (water, ethanol, methanol, acetone) on extraction efficiency and biological activity. The study evaluated antioxidant potential, cytotoxicity against HeLa cells, and phytochemical composition via GC-MS analysis.

Results

Acetone yielded the highest crude extract (5.01%), while ethanol extract exhibited the highest total phenolic (376.5 ± 9.3 mg PG/g) and flavonoid content (30.3 ± 0.5 mg QE/g). Ethanol extract demonstrated strong radical scavenging activity and the greatest cytotoxic inhibition (>65% at 1000 µg/mL) against HeLa cells. GC-MS identified solvent-specific bioactive compounds including sterols, terpenoids, polyphenols, and fatty acids, with pharmacologically relevant compounds such as hinokione, ferruginol, ergosterol, and geranylgeraniol detected.

Conclusion

High-altitude G. lucidum extracts demonstrate significant therapeutic potential with solvent-dependent bioactivity. Ethanol proved the most effective extraction solvent, producing phenolic- and flavonoid-rich fractions with broad-spectrum antioxidant and cytotoxic activities. The findings underscore the importance of solvent selection and suggest that high-altitude ecological conditions influence the mushroom’s bioactive metabolite profile, supporting its potential as a therapeutic agent against oxidative stress and cancer.

Published in:Current Issues in Molecular Biology,
Study Type:Experimental Research Study,
Source: 40864778