Research advances in fungal polysaccharides: production, extraction, characterization, properties, and their multifaceted applications

Author: mycolabadmin
6/9/2025
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Summary

This comprehensive review explores how mushrooms and fungi produce special carbohydrates called polysaccharides that have remarkable health benefits. These compounds can boost the immune system, fight cancer, reduce inflammation, and act as antioxidants. The article details various methods to produce and extract these valuable compounds from fungi and discusses their practical uses in medicine, food production, and agriculture.

Background

Fungal polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates composed of monosaccharide units linked by glycosidic bonds with significant biological potential. These bioactive compounds demonstrate immune stimulation, antioxidant activity, anticancer properties, and anti-inflammatory effects. Research on fungal polysaccharides has grown substantially, with 8,138 documents published between 2000-2024 in the Scopus database.

Objective

This review summarizes current findings on fungal polysaccharides over a 15-year period (2010-2024), covering production processes, extraction methods, characterization techniques, biological properties, and practical applications. The study includes analysis of global patent trends related to fungal polysaccharides and discusses future perspectives and challenges in the field.

Results

Multiple fungal species from Ascomycota and Basidiomycota phyla produce polysaccharides with diverse applications. Solid state fermentation yields ranged from 60.5-106.74 mg/g, while submerged fermentation achieved yields up to 5.713 g/L. Different extraction methods showed varying efficiencies, with alkaline extraction yielding 13.16% for Tricholoma mongolicum compared to other methods.

Conclusion

Fungal polysaccharides represent valuable bioactive compounds with significant therapeutic and industrial potential across medicine, pharmacology, food, agriculture, and environmental applications. Selection of appropriate production and extraction methods depends on fungal species characteristics and desired outcomes. Future research should focus on optimization of bioprocesses and expanded clinical applications.

Published in:Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology,
Study Type:Review,
Source: PMID: 40552121, PMC ID: PMC12183277