Fungi naturally produce many compounds that kill harmful bacteria, fungi, and viruses. This review explores how these fungal compounds could replace antibiotics that no longer work due to drug resistance. These natural substances could be used not only as medicines but also in cosmetic products to prevent bacterial growth and improve skin health.
This comprehensive review examines how medicinal mushrooms contain natural compounds that can boost immune function, fight cancer cells, reduce inflammation, and protect nerve cells. Different mushroom species like reishi, shiitake, and maitake contain various active substances such as beta-glucans and triterpenes that work through multiple biological pathways. While laboratory and animal studies show promising results, more human clinical trials are needed to confirm effectiveness and establish safe dosing guidelines.
Mushrooms contain special compounds that may help protect our brains as we age. These fungal compounds fight inflammation, reduce harmful free radicals, and help clear out damaged cellular parts—all things that slow down brain aging and diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. While the research looks very promising in lab and animal studies, scientists still need to figure out how to make these compounds work better in the human body and prove they’re safe and effective in patients.
Scientists discovered nine types of fungi living inside an Amazonian plant called crajiru that produce colorful pigments. One fungus called Hypoxylon investiens stood out for producing a red pigment with strong antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. This discovery could help replace synthetic dyes in food and cosmetics with natural alternatives from fungi, which are easier and cheaper to produce than extracting pigments from plants.
Researchers tested five types of fungi that naturally attack insects to see if they could control Ascaris roundworm eggs that contaminate pig farms and pose health risks. While none of the fungi directly killed the eggs, two species (Isaria fumosorosea and Metarhizium robertsii) successfully slowed egg development and showed potential for controlling parasites. These fungi appear to work by producing toxic compounds and enzymes rather than by penetrating the egg shells directly.
This review explains how scientists use metabolomics—a technique that identifies all chemical compounds in organisms—to understand how fungi cause disease and resist medicines. Fungi produce many different chemicals that help them attack our bodies and survive treatments, but these same chemicals could also be used to create new medicines. By studying these fungal chemicals, researchers can develop better antifungal drugs and understand how fungi manage to evade our immune system.
Fungi are remarkable organisms with tremendous untapped potential for solving global challenges. They can be engineered to produce life-saving medicines like antibiotics and cholesterol-lowering drugs, create nutritious food alternatives, clean up polluted environments, and help fight climate change. As we transition to more sustainable living practices, fungi represent a natural solution that has been used for centuries but is only now being fully appreciated through modern biotechnology.
This article examines how fungi have provided humanity with some of the most important medicines ever created, including penicillin, drugs that prevent organ rejection, and cholesterol-lowering statins. Many of these fungal compounds work as medicines because they target processes that are similar in both fungi and humans, helping them survive competition with other fungi while coincidentally treating human diseases. New researchers are now using modern genetic tools to discover additional fungal medicines, with several promising candidates currently being tested in clinical trials for cancer, depression, and other chronic diseases.
This review examines how scientists extract and study beneficial compounds called polysaccharides from a medicinal fungus called Phellinus. These polysaccharides show promise in fighting cancer, reducing inflammation, and boosting immune function. Different extraction methods affect the quality and effectiveness of these compounds, and researchers are working to optimize these techniques for better therapeutic applications.
This review examines a special group of fungal compounds called incisterols, with focus on demethylincisterol A3 (DM-A3), which shows promise as a cancer-fighting agent. DM-A3 works through multiple mechanisms: it blocks cancer cell growth pathways, inhibits specific cancer-promoting proteins, and has anti-inflammatory effects. The compound has shown strong activity against various cancer types in laboratory and animal studies, making it a candidate for further development as a potential cancer therapy.