Diversity, nutritional composition and medicinal potential of Indian mushrooms: A review

Mushrooms are the higher fungi which have long been used for food and medicinal purposes. They have rich nutritional value with high protein content (up to 44.93%), vitamins, minerals, fibers, trace elements and low calories and lack cholesterol. There are 14,000 known species of mushrooms of which 2,000 are safe for human consumption and about 650 of these possess medicinal properties. Among the total known mushrooms, approximately 850 species are recorded from India. Many of them have been used in food and folk medicine for thousands of years. Mushrooms are also sources of bioactive substances including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, antiinflammatory, anticancer, antitumour, anti-HIV and antidiabetic activities. Nutriceuticals and medicinal mushrooms have been used in human health development in India as food, medicine, minerals among others. The present review aims to update the current status of mushrooms diversity in India with their nutritional and medicinal potential as well as ethnomedicinal uses for different future prospects in pharmaceutical application.


INTRODUCTION
Mushroom is a general term used mainly for the fruiting body of macrofungi (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota) and represents only a short reproductive stage in their life cycle (Das, 2010).Mushroom can be epigeous or hypogeous, large enough to be seen with the naked eyes and can be picked by hand (Chang and Miles, 1992).From the taxonomic point of view, mainly basidiomycetes but also some species of ascomycetes are mushroom forming fungi.Total mushrooms on the earth are estimated to be 140,000 species in which 10% (14,000 approximately) are known.Assuming that the proportion of useful mushrooms among the undiscovered and unexamined mushrooms will be only 5%, implies that there are 7,000 yet undiscovered species, which if discovered will be provided with the possible benefit to mankind (Hawksworth, 2001).
Many of them have been used in folk medicine for thousands of years.Some of them are nutraceuticals (natural food having potential value in maintaining good health and boosting immune system of the human body) while others can produce potent nutriceuticals (compounds that have medicinal and nutritional attributes and are consumed as medicines in the form of capsules or tablets but not as food) (Elmastas et al., 2007;Ribeiro et al., 2007).Mushrooms are known to be rich sources of various bioactive substances like antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitic, antioxidant, antiinflammatory, antiproliferative, anticancer, antitumour, cytotoxic, anti-HIV, hypocholesterolemic, antidiabetic, anticoagulant, hepatoprotective compounds, among others (Wasser and Weis, 1999;Lindequist et al., 2005;Ajith and Janardhanan, 2007).Out of approximately 14,000 known species, 2,000 are safe for human consumption and about 650 of these possess medicinal properties (Rai et al., 2005).In developing countries like India with rich biodiversity, mushrooms are a boon for progress in the field of food, medicine and unemployment because of several nutriceuticals and medicinal mushrooms that have been found to be useful towards human health development as food, medicine, minerals and drugs among others.(Rai et al., 2005;Sheena et al., 2005;Wani et al., 2010).The present review provides information on mushroom diversity in India and their nutritional and therapeutic importance of various Indian mushrooms towards human health and benefits such as food, medicine, minerals, drugs among others.

MUSHROOM DIVERSITY IN INDIA
In India the total recorded mushrooms are approximately 850 species (Deshmukh, 2004).There are references to the use of mushrooms as food and medicine in India in the ancient medical treatise, Charaka Samhita (3000±500 BC).However, the scientific study of mushrooms in India started with the identification and description of Podaxis pistillaris (L.: Pers.) by Linnaeus in the 18th century which was collected and sent by Koening from Tamil Nadu State.Later, Sir J.D. Hooker made extensive collection mostly from Assam, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Khasi hills which led to the publication of a series of papers by an English mycologist, Revd M.J. Berkeley between 1850 and 1882 (Natarajan, 1995).
Collection and scientific study of mushrooms in India really began during the 19 th century and continued till date (Kaul, 2002).The period can be divided into three phases.The first phase lasted from 1825 to 1899 and in addition to Berkeley and Montagne, recorders during this phase included Fries, Léveillé, Currey, Cooke, Massee, Watt and Lloyd (Sathe, 1979;Natarajan, 1995).The second phase  started with Paul Henning's significant contributions which have described another 32 genera and 68 species from India (Natarajan, 1995).A significant feature of the second phase was the involvement, besides European and American workers, of a number of Indian workers in research on higher fungi (Sathe, 1979).Special mention should be made of the work on Indian fungi by E.J. Butler at Pusa (Bihar) in the post of Imperial Mycologist who has produced the first authoritative list, Fungi of India, in collaboration with G.R. Bisby (Butler and Bisby, 1931).This publication was updated until the latest edition by Sarbhoy et al. (1996).Notable Indian workers of this period were Professor S.R. Bose (Calcutta, West Bengal) and Professor K.S. Thind (Punjab University, Chandigarh).The third phase of the work is said to have started in the early 1970s and continuing till date provided much needed impetus with the development of an edible mushroom industry in India.After that, several researchers are continuing their study all over India on mushroom diversity and their uses as food and medicine (Patil et al., 1995;Swapna et al., 2008;Das, 2010, Sachan et al., 2013).Details of region wise studies undertaken on mushroom diversity in India have been discussed below.

North India
Several reports on higher fungi and mushroom have been conducted from northern India which includes North Western region, Eastern Himalaya proper and North-Eastern hilly areas.North western region of India includes Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Gujarat while the Eastern Himalaya proper includes the northern parts of Assam, the whole of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, and North-Eastern covers the hilly states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura (Khoshoo, 1992).Berkeley in 1876 was probably the first to report higher fungi from the Kashmir valley.Later, T. N. Kaul and his group provided fragmentary records on higher fungi in the late 1960s working at the Regional Research Laboratory, Srinagar and Kashmir.Due to sustained work carried out by Kaul, Kapoor and Abraham from Northern India, 262 higher fungi have been recorded from Kashmir valley, among which 226 taxa were agarics (Abraham, 1991).They described a number of species of Coprinus, Morchella, Pleurotus, Lycoperdon, Calvatia and Helvella.A significant contribution to their study was made by Professor Watling from Edinburgh, UK, who, besides providing constant guidance to these workers, published a list of 119 species of higher fungi from the Kashmir valley, based on his personal collection (Watling and Gregory, 1980).
North-Western Himalaya has been the centre of intensive research on higher fungi since the 1950s.An edible species of Agaricus, namely Kbasianulosus was first reported from Punjab of North-West Himalaya by Paracer and Chahal (1962).Now there are two active centers (Department of Botany, Punjab University, Chandigarh and Punjabi University, Patiala) of research on macrofungi in this region and collections have mostly been made from North-West Himalaya.Professor K. S. Thind (Punjab University, Chandigarh) has published a series of papers on operculate discomycetes, particularly Pezizales.A total of 226 operculate discomycetes have been recorded from India so far; the major contribution from Thind and his associates.Thind and his associates have also worked on clavarioid homobasidiomycetes in the Himalaya, recording 181 taxa in 20 genera from Indo-Himalaya (Thind, 1961;Kaul, 1992).Thind and his colleagues have also published a series of papers on the Polyporaceae of India, and later Rattan (1977) recorded 198 species of resupinate aphyllophoroid taxa from North-West Himalaya.
A number of reports on mushroom from North Western Himalaya have been provided by Atri and Saini since 1988 to till date from Department of Botany, Punjab University, Patiala (second center).Atri and Saini (1989) reviewed work on the Russulaceae worldwide including the Indian components.They have described many species of mushrooms which include Russula, Lactarius (Saini et al. 1988, Atri et al. 1991a), Agaricus campestris (Atri et al. 1991b), Termitomyces (Atri et al., 1995), Agaricales and Gasteromycetes (Saini and Atri, 1995), Lepiota (Atri et al., 1996).Atri et al. (1997) also studied the taxonomy, distribution, ecology and edibility of 30 taxa of genus Russula which are new records from India.To date only 81 taxa (55 of Russula and 26 of Lactarius) have been recorded from India.Some fleshy fungi from Himachal Pradesh were described by Sohi et al. (1964).They prepared a list of 15 fleshy fungi of which 3 (viz; Macrolepiota procera, Cantharellus minor and Cantharellus cibarius) were noted as edible.Sohi et al. (1965) also described 10 species in which four belonging to Morchella (viz; M. hybrida, M. angusticeps, M. conica, M. esculenta) and two of Helvella (viz; Emitra, and E. crispa) are edible.Three important centers of work on macrofungi in the state of Himachal Pradesh are the Biosciences Department, University of Himachal Pradesh, Shimla; the Agricultural and Horticultural University, Solan, and the National Research Centre on Mushrooms (ICAR), Solan.Professor Lakhanpal, working at the University of Himachal Pradesh, Shimla, has made a major contribution with a list of 190 species of Agaricales occurring over the entire North-west Himalayan region (Lakhanpal, 1995).Agarwal et al. (1984) made additions to fleshy fungi of India by recording Collybia albijorida, Calvaria flava, Amanita phalliodes, Lysurus borealis and Calyatia species from Palampur district of Himachal Pradesh.A review of Himalayan Agaricales was also conducted by Lakhanpal (1993) and listed all genera by family and the number of species present in India and their distribution in both north-western and eastern Himalaya.An attempt has been made by Pande et al. (2004) to give an assessment of the species diversity of Thatoi and Singdevsachan 525 epigeous ectomycorrhizal fungi of the temperate forests of Western Himalaya, based on studies carried out in this region.They have reported several major genera in terms of species of Amanita (15 sp.), Russula (13 sp.), Boletus (12 sp.), Lactarius (9 sp.), Hygrophorus (4 sp.) and Cortinarius (4 sp.).
A new record of twenty eight species of the macrofungi distributed in eighteen genera belonging to ten families of the order Agaricales have been reported by Upadhyay et al. (2007) from North Western Himalaya, India (Table 1).Futher, Vishwakarma et al. (2011) have reported some medicnal mushrooms (Ganoderma lucidum, A. campestris, Hydnum repandum, Coprinus comatus, M. esculenta and Cantharellus cibarius) from Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India.Later, macrofungal diversity in moist temperate forests of Garhwal Himalaya has reported by M.P. Vishwakarma and his group (Vishwakarma et al., 2012).As a result of their study, total 40 taxa belonging to 11 families were identified (Table 1).Sharma and Sidhu (1991) reported the occurrence and distribution of Geoglossaceae in the Eastern Himalayan ranges of India.They maintained that the Himalaya in general and Eastern Himalaya and adjoining hills in particular are relatively rich in Geoglossaceae.They surveyed localities in and around West Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh states and recorded 12 species distributed among nine genera with ecological notes (Table 1).In India as a whole, the family is represented by 48 species within nine genera.Verma et al. (1987) described fleshy fungal flora of the northeastern hills (NEH) India from Manipur and Meghalaya belonging to the family Auriculariaceae, Clavariaceae, Cantharellaceae, Tricholomataceae, Pluteaceae, Paxillaceae, Cortinariaceae, Cycoperdaceae, and Sclerodermataceae of Basidiomycotina and Halvellaceae of Ascomycotina.Again, Verma et al. (1995) recorded the results of a macrofungal survey of the NEH and confirmed ninety five species of higher fungi.Among these, 85 species were new records from the NEH region and others were from different locations of India.
Three new species of Lactarius (L.sanjappae, L. mukteswaricus and L. verbekenae) in different regions of Kumaon Himalaya were extensively studied and described by Das et al. (2004).Total 126 wild mushrooms from Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary of the state Sikkim were also recently reported by Das (2010) which were enlisted with their scientific names, common names, distribution, growing period and status of edibility.Medicinally important 46 mushrooms were also highlighted with their medicinal properties.Acharya et al. (2010) have reported 151 species of Agaricales belonging to 42 genera from the Darjeeling and Sikkim hilly areas of Sikkim Himalaya.The number of representative species under each of the 42 genera varied with 13 genera having a single species each and the genera Mycena and Collybia, having 20 and 16 species, respectively.A total of 11 edible macrofungi   species (Table 1) in Dhemaji district, Assam were explored by Gogoi and Sarma (2012).Recently, Khaund and Joshi (2013) have reported diversity of wild edible mushrooms from Khasi hills of Meghalaya, India.During their study period, a total of 11 different species were identified based on morphology that belongs to 9 genera and 8 families (Table 1).Further, three new species of Russula (Russula sharmae, R. dubdiana and R. sikkimensis) from Sikkim (India) have been reported by Das et al. (2013).
Another centre of work in the northern India is the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.Pathak and Gupta (1979) reported 58 species of agaricus from Lucknow area distributed among 25 genera.Prominent genera were Agaricus, Amanita, Chlorophyllum, Coprinus, Macrolepiota, Pleurotus, Termitomyces and Volvariella.Danchola and Bahukhandi (1988) discovered Agaricus argyropotamicus, Agaricus solidipes and Stropharia pokhraensis as new Agaricus from Garhwal district of Uttar Pradesh.

Central India
Mushroom research of central part of India covers Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha states.Moses (1948) identified the edible mushrooms of Baroda state including Volvorella diplasia, P. ostreatus, Boletus crocatus, Agaricus arvensis and some puff-balls.Mushroom recording in Maharashtra was neglected for a long time and only 21 species of agarics had been recorded from the state by year 1967 (Kamat et al., 1971).Intensive work in the region began only after 1974 when A.V. Sathe and his group, working at the Maharashtra Association for Cultivation of Sciences, published a series of papers mainly on Agaricales (Sathe, 1979;Sathe and Kulkarni, 1987).Later a comprehensive list of 231 mushrooms recorded from all regions of Maharashtra state was published by Patil et al. (1995).Recently Bhosle et al. (2010) reported 15 species and 3 varieties of Ganoderma lucidum (of which one variety remains unidentified) from the Western parts of Maharashtra (India) and in their study, only 9 valid Ganoderma species have been reported from India.Karwa and Rai (2010) also surveyed six different zones of Melghat forest of Amravati District, Maharashtra State from July 2005 to December 2008 for the availability of wild edible and medicinal mushrooms.In their study, out of total 153 species, ten species of Agaricus were recorded from different localities.Of these, seven species namely Agaricus bitorquis, A. subrufescens, A. augustus, A. placomyces, A. essettei, A. basioanolosus and Agaricus sp.nov (a new species) are being reported for the first time from this region (Table 1).Biodiversity of mushrooms of Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve, Madhya Pradesh have been reported by Dwivedi et al, (2012).They have collected 52 mushroom samples from Amarkantak region forests which were belonging to different genera out of which only 14 mushroom samples were identified up to species level (Table 1).Rests were identified only up to the genus level.Bose (1921) Purkayastha and Chandra (1974) from West Bengal.The former was a new species while the later was first recorded from India.Ten species of Calvatia and Lycoperdon have been incorporated in the list of edible fungi by Gupta et al. (1974).Out of the 10 species described, 7 were edible in their immature stage.Among seven edible mushroom, 3 species belong to Calvatia, 2 to Lycoperdon and one each to Geastrum and Bovista.
Purkayastha devoted attention to wild edible mushrooms of West Bengal and succeeded in cultivating one of them, C. indica Purkayastha and Chandra.Purkayastha and Chandra (1985) compiled lists of Indian edible mushrooms which included 283 species of higher fungi.
Recently a total of 14 species of fleshy mushrooms belonging to 8 genera and 6 families (Table 1) were reported by authors from Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Odisha, India (Sachan et al., 2013).

South India
Study on mushrooms in South India such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh was neglected as regards to studies on agarics until 1975 (Natarajan, 1995).The genus of Volvariella from Kerala, India was first time investigated by Pradeep et al. (1998) A survey of macrofungi diversity has been conducted in semi-evergreen and in moist deciduous forest of Shimoga District-Karnataka, India during 2005 to 2007 by Swapna et al. (2008).In their survey, a total of 778 species of macrofungi belonging to 43 families, 101 genera were enumerated of which 242 species were identified to genus level and 73 were identified to species level.Further, Pushpa and Purushothama (2012) have studied the biodiversity of Mushrooms in and around Bangalore (Karnataka), India and recorded 90 species in 48 genera belonging to 19 families in 05 orders.Among them, 28 species were found to be recorded for the first time in India.

NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF MUSHROOMS
Man has been hunting for the wild mushrooms since ancient time (Cooke, 1977).Thousands of years ago, the fruiting body of higher fungi has been used as a source of food (Mattila et al., 2001) due to their chemical composition which is attractive from the nutrition point of view.During the early days of civilization, mushrooms were consumed mainly for their palatability and unique flavors.Present use of mushrooms is totally different from traditional because, lot of research has been done on the chemical composition of mushrooms, which revealed that mushrooms can be used as a diet to combat diseases.The early history regarding the use of mushrooms in different countries has been reviewed by number of workers (Rolfe and Rolfe, 1925;Bano and Rajarathnam, 1982;Wani et al., 2010).Rolfe and Rolfe (1925) mentioned that mushrooms like A. campestris, M. esculenta, Helvella crispa, Hydnum coralloides, Hypoxylon vernicosum and Polyporus mylittae were used much earlier in India.Lintzel (1941) recommended that 100 to 200 g of mushrooms (dry weight) is required to maintain an optimal nutritional balance in a man weighing 70 kg.Several researchers have determined the nutritional value of different mushrooms.Among them, Bano et al. (1963) determined the nutritive value of Pleurotus flabellatus as 0.974% ash, 1.084% crude fibre, 0.105% fat, 90.95% moisture, 0.14% non-protein nitrogen and 2.75% protein.Bano (1976) suggested that food value of mushrooms lies between meat and vegetables.Gruen and Wong (1982) indicated that edible mushrooms were highly nutritional and compared favorably with meat, egg and milk food sources.Crisan and Sands (1978) observed that mushrooms in general contain 90% water, 10% dry matter with the protein content varying between 27 and 48% and carbohydrates are less than 60% and lipids are between 2 to 8%.Orgundana and Fagade (1981) indicated that an average mushroom is about 16.5% dry matter out of which 7.4% is crude fiber, 14.6% is crude protein and 4.48% is fat and oil.In case of Indian mushrooms, several reports on nutritional status of different mushrooms have been published in different manner which is discussed below.

PROXIMATE COMPOSITION Protein and amino acids
Protein is an important constituent of mushrooms (Agrahar-Murugkar and Subbulakshmi, 2005;Wani et al., 2010).Protein content of mushrooms depends on the composition of the substratum, size of pileus, harvest time and species of mushrooms (Bano and Rajarathnam, 1982).Protein content in Pleurotus sp. has been documented to range between 8.9 and 38.7% on dry weight basis (Bano and Rajarathnam, 1982).Rai and Sohi (1988) also reported protein content of Agaricus bisporus to be 29.3% on dry weight basis.Purkayastha and Chandra (1985) found 14 to 27% crude protein on dry weight basis in A. bisporus, L. subnudus, C. indica and Volvariella volvacea.Samajipati (1978) (Manzi et al., 2001).
In terms of the amount of crude protein, mushrooms rank below animal meats but well above most other foods including milk (Chang, 1980).Mushrooms in general have higher protein content than most other vegetables (Bano and Rajarathnam, 1988).On a dry weight basis, mushrooms normally contain 19 to 35% proteins as compared to 7.3% in rice, 12.7% in wheat, 38.1% in soybean and 9.4% in corn (Crisan and Sands, 1978;Bano and Rajarathnam, 1988).Verma et al. (1987) reported that mushrooms are very useful for vegetarians because they contain some essential amino acids which are found in animal proteins.Mushrooms contain all the essential amino acids required by an adult (Hayes and Haddad, 1976).Gupta and Sing (1991) reported 41.4% essential amino acids in P. pistillaris.Longvah and Deosthale (1998) also analyzed the amino acid content of two edible wild mushrooms (Schizophyllum commune and L. edodes) from northeast India and reported that 34% and 39% essential amino acids are present in S. commune and L. edodes respectively.Agrahar-murugkar and Subbulakshmi (2005) also analyzed the essential amino acid of seven wild edible mushrooms from the Khasi hills of Meghalaya and found average ranges between 16.3 (lysine) and 45.8% (methionine).The digestibility of Pleurotus mushrooms proteins is as that of plants (90%) whereas that of meat is 99% (Bano and Rajarathnam, 1988).The protein conversion efficiency of edible mushrooms per unit of land and per unit time is far more superior compared to animal sources of protein (Bano and Rajarathnam, 1988).

Carbohydrate
The carbohydrate content of mushrooms represents the

Lipid/fat
In mushrooms, the fat content is very low as compared to proteins and carbohydrates.The fats present in mushroom fruiting bodies are dominated by unsaturated fatty acids.Singer (1961) determined the fat content of some mushrooms as 2.04% in Suillus granulatus, 3.66% in Suillus luteus and 2.32% in A. campestris.Crude fat content in the range of 1.08 to 9.4% with an average of 2.85% has been reported in Pleurotus species (Bano and Rajarathnam, 1982).On fresh weight basis, the fat content of 0.10 to 0.19% in Pleurotus species has been reported by Rai et al. (1988).Fat content of fresh A. bisporus (Lange) Sing and P. ostreatus (Jacq: Fr.) Kumm was analyzed by Manzi et al. (2001)

Vitamins
Mushrooms are one of the best sources of vitamins especially vitamin B (Mattila et al., 1994(Mattila et al., , 2000)).Manning (1985) gave a comprehensive data of vitamin content of mushrooms and some vegetables which are present in the world.But in India, the information on vitamin content of mushrooms has been lacking.Agrahar-murugkar and Subbulakshmi (2005) determined the vitamin C content (mg/g) in seven wild edible mushrooms commonly consumed in the Khasi hills of Meghalaya, India and found that 14.9, 41.8, 41.9, 28.(Singdevsachan et al., 2013).Unfortunately, information on the bioavailability of vitamins from mushrooms has been lacking.

Mineral constituents
Ash content of different mushrooms is usually 0.18-15.73% of dry matter (Table 2).The fruiting bodies of mushrooms are characterized by a high level of well assimilated mineral elements.Major mineral constituents in mushrooms are Na, K, Ca, Mg, P, S and elements like As, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Mo, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn among others form minor constituents (Bano and Rajarathanum, 1982;Bano et al., 1981).The mineral content of wild edible mushrooms has been found to be higher than cultivated ones (Mattilla et al., 2001).Kaul (1978) has reported that M. esculenta contains Ca (0.57 mg/g), P (3.31 mg/g), Fe (1.21 mg/g) and K (3.83 mg/g).Bano et al. (1981) and Bisaria et al. (1987) have also assessed the minerals and heavy metals content in Pleurotus sp. which are given in Table 3. Longvah and Deosthale (1998) analyzed the two species of mushrooms (S. commune and L. edodes) from northeast India and found that both mushrooms appear to be rich in minerals (Table 3).Micronutrient profile of seven wild edible mushrooms were also analyzed by Agrahar-murugkar and Subbulakshmi (2005) which are commonly consumed in the Khasi hills of Meghalaya (Table 3) and reported that the calcium (g%) content ranged from 0.42 in C. cibarius to 1.91 in C. cineria.Phosphorus (g%) levels were the highest in C. cibarius (0.58), followed by R. brevispora (0.51) whereas R. integra had the lowest levels with 0.24.C. cinerea had a very high content of iron (mg%) at 75.2.The rest fell in the range 7.17 (R. brevispora) to 56.2 (R. integra).Manganese (mg%) levels ranged between 4.41 in C. gigantea to 11.4 in R. brevispora.The copper (mg%) of the mushrooms studied was between 1.39 (C.gigantea) and 23.9 (C.cinerea).Zinc (mg%) levels varied between 6.76 in R. brevispora and 39.4 in L. quieticolor.Sodium (mg%) ranged from 0.14 in G. floccosus to 0.56 in R. integra.Potassium (mg%) levels varied between 17.0 (L.quieticolor) and 52.1 (C.cinerea).Magnesium (mg%) content was between 25.3 in L. quieticolor to 327 in R. virescens.The content of selenium (µg/kg), ranged from negligible levels in G. floccosus to very high levels in L. quieticolor (975) and C. cibarius (295).Mineral composition of L. tuberregium in both wild and cultivated type were also analyzed by Manjunathan and Kaviyarasan (2011) and found that the potassium concentration in the cultivated mushroom (90.8%) was higher than in the wild (7.53%).Zinc was distributed such that the cultivated variety had a higher concentration (4.9%) than the wild one (0.41).
Proximate composition of four wild mushrooms has been studied by Manjunathan et al. (2011) with their maco-and micromineral contents.Macro mineral such as calcium content was 208 mg/g for Clitocybe sp., and 195 mg/g for M. rhodocus.The highest sodium and potassium content (858.4 and 1369.1 mg/g respectively) found in Clitocybe sp.whereas M. rhodocus had the highest magnesium content (250 mg/g) (Table 3).Further, micromineral such as Iron content varied from A. polytricha with 16.3 mg/g to M. rhodocus with 85.6 mg/g.Copper content ranged from A. polytricha (0.3 mg/g) to M. rhodocus 9.0 mg/g.Manganese content in M. rhodocus, Clitocybe sp, A. polytricha, and L. tigrinus were 3.4, 2.7, 1.3 and 0.6 mg/g, respectively (Manjunathan et al., 2011).Recently, Singdevsachan et al. (2013) have reported the mineral contents of two wild mushrooms (L.sajor-caju and L. torulosus) from Similipal Biosphre Reserve, Odisha, India.L. torulosus showed the highest iron (2.94 mg/kg), potassium (0.85 mg/kg) and phosphorus (0.24 mg/kg) contents whereas L. sajor-caju showed the highest manganese (0.12 mg/kg) and nickel (0.05 mg/kg) contents (Table 3).However, both mushrooms did not show the presence of cobalt and cadmium content (Singdevsachan et al. 2013).The mineral proportions vary according to the species, age and the diameter of the fruiting body.It also depends upon the type of the substratum (Demirbas, 2001).

MEDICINAL POTENTIAL OF MUSHROOMS
Medical mycology is as old as traditional uses of mushrooms.They have been used in medicine since the Neolithic and Paleolithic eras (Samorini, 2001).Although mushrooms as medicine have been used in China since 100 A.D. (Gunde-Cimmerman, 1999), but it was only in 1960 that scientists investigated the basic active principles of mushrooms which are health promoting.Mushrooms have been used in health care for treating simple and age old common diseases like skin diseases to present day complex and pandemic disease like acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).Mushrooms in the twentieth century are well known to people all over Asian countries as an important biosource of novel secondary metabolites.In India, particularly the alternative systems of medicine, utilize the curative properties of mushrooms.The secondary metabolites of these mushrooms are chemically diverse and possess a wide spectrum of biological activities, which are explored in traditional medicines (Rai et al., 2005).In India, several mushrooms have been reported as medicinal mushrooms which have antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory activity with antitumor and other properties.

Antioxidant properties
Several researchers investigated that a number of medicinal mushrooms occurring in India possessed promising antioxidant properties.Extracts from fruiting bodies and mycelia of Ganoderma lucidum, Phellinus rimosus and several Pleurotus sp.occurring in South India were found to possess antioxidant activity with high free radical scavenging activity (Jones and Janardhanan, 2000;Ajith and Janardhanan, 2001;Lakshmi et al., 2003).Ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extract of G. lucidum has been reported to effectively scavenge the O 2 • and •OH radicals, however the aqueous extract was not effective to inhibit the ferrous ion induced lipid peroxidation (Jones and Janardhanan, 2000) whereas ethanol extracts of the mycelium of G. lucidum showed high antiperoxidative activity (Lakshmi et al., 2003).The methanol extract of fruiting bodies of P. florida was found to possess •OH radical scavenging and lipid peroxidation inhibiting activities (Jose and Janardhanan, 2000).The extract also showed significant reducing power and radical scavenging property as evident from ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 2,2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicals scavenging assay.Ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extracts of the Phellinus rimosus were effective to scavenge O 2 generated from the photoillumination of riboflavin, •OH generated from Fenton's reaction, nitric oxide radical released from aqueous solution of sodium nitroprusside in a dose dependent manner (Ajith and Janardhanan, 2001).All these three extracts of P. rimosus also inhibited dose dependently ferrous ion induced lipid peroxidation in the rat whole liver homogenate.Sheena et al. (2005) also studied the therapeutic potential of G. lucidum and reported that the sample of G. lucidum from South Indian tropics has greater antioxidant activity through suppression of formation capacity of the free radicals and also possesses high 2,2-azobis-3ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonilic acid (ABTS) and DPPH scavenging activity.The antioxidant potential from water and methanolic extracts of fruiting bodies of 23 species of mushrooms naturally grown in different geographic locations of India (forest area of Himachal Pradesh and Kerala) was measured by Puttaraju et al. (2006).The antioxidant ability of each species was analyzed for the total antioxidative status, employing multimechanistic antioxidative assays such as inhibition of lipid peroxidation, determination of reducing power, and free radical scavenging ability with determination of total phenolics, because the phenolics are known to contribute largely to antioxidant potential.Termitomyces heimii was identified as the best variety, which showed 37 mg of phenolics/g of sample, 418 units of reducing power ability (RPA)/g, and an IC 50 of ~1.1 mg (dry weight)/mL, free radical scavenging activity (FRS) in the water extract followed by 11.2 mg of phenolics/g, 275 units of RPA/g, and an IC 50 of ~2.7 mg (dry weight)/mL of FRS in the methanolic extract.Antioxidant and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activation properties of Armillaria mellea Quel was evaluated by Rai et al. (2009).In vitro evaluation of antioxidant activities of A. mellea Quel showed significant inhibition of lipid peroxidation, potent hydroxyl and DPPH radical scavenging activity with IC 50 values of crude, boiled and ethanolic extracts ranging from 36.3 to 388.92 μg/ml.Among three kinds of extracts, the ethanolic extract was the most effective in relation to antioxidant activity and NOS activation property.Antioxidant activity and bioactive compounds from six wild mushrooms (Lycoperdon perlatum, C. cibarius, Clavaria vermiculris, Ramaria formosa, Marasmius oreades, P. pulmonarius) of Western Ghats of Karnataka, India were studied by Ramesh and Pattar (2010).All the mushrooms showed high phenol and flavonoid content with promising antioxidant properties (Ramesh and Pattar, 2010).Antioxidant and phytochemical properties of ethanolic extracts from the wild edible mushroom Termitomyces reticulatus and their individual parts (Cap and Stipe) were evaluated by Loganathan et al. (2010) through the reducing power, β-carotene bleaching, ABTS and DPPH radicals scavenging activity methods.Antioxidant components like total phenol, flavonoid, β-carotene and lycopene were also determined and the amount of phenol was correlated with the antioxidant property.All the extracts showed potent antioxidant activities, in which the entire mushroom extract showed more antioxidant property when compared with the other two extracts (Cap and Stipe).Kumari et al. (2011) have investigated the antioxidant activity of Cantharellus friessi, Cantharellus subcibarius, Cantharellus cinerius and P. florida collected from North-Western Himalayan region of India including their bioactive compounds such as phenol, flavonoid, ascorbic acid and β-carotene.Among them C. friessi showed significantly higher antioxidant activity through βcarotene bleaching method and with the high phenol content (16.80 mg/g) than the other mushroom species.Methanolic extracts of cap and stipe of commercially obtained mushrooms A. bisporus, Hypsizygus ulmarius, and C. indica were analysed by Babu and Rao (2011) for their antioxidant activity in different chemical systems including reducing power, free radical scavenging, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), superoxide scavenging, peroxide scavenging, and metal chelating activities.All the three commercially grown mushrooms exhibited moderate to high antioxidant activities.All the activities increased steadily with increase in the concentration.Hypsizygus ulmarius cap showed excellent DPPH radical scavenging, peroxide scavenging, FRAP and reducing power abilities which may be attributed to its highest total phenol content whereas the excellent ferrous ion chelation and superoxide scavenging abilities exhibited by A. bisporus cap may be attributed to its highest flavonoid content (Babu and Rao, 2011).It has been reported that free radical-scavenging activity is greatly influenced by the phenolic composition of samples (Cheung et al., 2003) and the reducing power of mushrooms might be due to their hydrogen-donating ability (Shimada et al., 1992).Accordingly, above studied mushrooms might contain higher amounts of reductone, which could react with free radicals to stabilise and block radical chain reactions.Beside that, the activity difference among the results obtained from antoioxidant studies with the mushroom extracts might be related to the different conditions of measurement and the sensitivity of the assays.Therefore several methods should be used in parallel to elucidate the complex field of antioxidants and oxidation (Ciz et al., 2010).

Antimicrobial properties
The petroleum ether, chloroform, acetone and water extracts of the mushroom Osmoporus odoratus have been tested for their antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa; the water extract alone showed antibacterial activity against the tested organisms and the results were comparable with that of ampicillin rather than chloramphenicol (Sivakumar et al., 2006) (Ramesh and Pattar, 2010).Manjunathan and Kaviyarasan (2010) studied the solvent based effectiveness of antibacterial activity of edible mushroom L. tuberregium (Fr.).In vitro antimicrobial properties of L. tuberregium culture filterate extracted using four different solvent systems (Hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform and ethyl acetate) were the most active to inhibit the growth of S. aureus, Micrococcus luteus, E. coli, Salmonella typhi and Shigella flexneri.The antibacterial activity of V. bombycina extracts (hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol) were evaluated by Jagadeesh et al. (2010) against the clinically important bacterial starins B. subtilis, S. aureus, E. coli, K. pneumoni and P. aeruginosa and reported that the V. bombycina extracts possess compounds which have the antibacterial properties.
The antibacterial and antifungal activity of methanol and aqueous extract of fruit bodies from Phellinus was tested by Balakumar et al. (2011) against five bacterial pathogens such as E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. typhi, S. aureus and Streptococcus mutans and five fungal strains Penicillium sps., Aspergillus fumigatous, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Mucor indicus.The fruit body of Phellinus showed potential antibacterial activities against the selected strains whereas aqueous extract showed maximum inhibition zone (42 mm) against P. aeruginosa and the methanolic extract showed the maximum antifungal activity against A. flavus (35 mm).Ethyl acetate extract of four different edible mushrooms (P.sajor-caju, V. volvaceae, A. bisporus and P. ostreatus) were investigated for their antimicrobial activity against B. subtilis, S. aureus, E. coli, K. pneumoniae and Proteus vulgaris (Surekha et al., 2011).Among them, only A. bisporus and P. ostreatus showed effective inhibition zone against all pathogenic strains.

Anti-inflammatory properties
Ethanolic extract of cultured mycelium of M. esculenta were investigated by Nitha et al. (2006) for their anti inflammatory activity.The extract showed significant dose-dependent inhibition of both acute and chronic inflammation in mice model which was comparable to that of the standard reference drug, Diclofenac.In yet another report, the acute and chronic anti inflammatory activities of ethyl acetate and methanolic extracts from G. lucidum were determined by Sheena et al. (2005) through carrageenan induced acute and formalin induced chronic inflammatory models in mice.Both the extracts showed significant effect on carrageenan induced acute and formalin induced chronic inflammation in mice which was comparable with standard drug, diclofenac.However chloroform extract of G. lucidum also exhibited significant anti inflammatory activity (Joseph et al., 2009).

Antitumor properties
The methanolic and aqueous extracts of G. lucidum were tested by Jones and Janardhanan (2000) for antitumor activity which effectively inhibited Ehrlich's ascites carcinoma (EAC) cell line induced solid tumor in mice when administered orally (Jones and Janardhanan, 2000).Methanol extract of the fruiting bodies of P. florida and P. pulmonarius occurring in South India also showed profound antitumor activity against the EAC cell line induced solid tumor model in mice (Jose and Janardhanan, 2000;Jose et al., 2002).The three differrent extracts (ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueus) of P. rimosus were found to inhibit the Dalton's Lymphoma Ascites (DLA) cell line induced solid tumor and EAC cell line induced ascites tumor in mice whereas the antitumor effect was high in ethyl acetate extract than the other extracts (Ajith and Janardhanan, 2003).Antitumor activity of G. lucidum was again confirmed by Sheena et al. (2005) through the EAC cell line induced solid tumor model in mice where both the extracts (methanol and aqueous) showed significant antitumor properties by inhibiting the tumor development.Polysaccharides, extracted from mycelium and fruiting bodies of L. tuberregium effectively inhibited solid tumour proliferation in mice (Manjunathan and Kaviyarasan, 2010).Antitumour activity of the ethanolic extract from cultured mycelium of morel mushroom, M. esculenta was determined by Nitha et al. (2006) using both DLA cell line-induced solid tumor and EAC cell lineinduced ascites tumor models in mice.The extract exhibited significant antitumor activity against both ascites and solid tumours (Nitha et al., 2006).

Immunomodulatory properties
In India, only a few studies have been carried out with mushrooms for immunomodulatory properties.Structural aspects of mushroom polysaccharides from P. osreatus, Astraeus hygrometricus, P. sajor-caju and P. florida has been studied at Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India (Chakraborty, 2004;Rout et al., 2004;2005) with their immunomodulatory effects.A water soluble glucan (Figure 1) was isolated from P. florida fruit bodies and investigated for its structural characterization and immunomodulatory effects by Rout et al. (2004) which exhibited significant macrophage activity through the release of nitric oxide whereas Chakraborty et al. ( 2004) investigated another water-soluble glucan (Figure 2) from an edible mushroom, A. hygrometricus and found that glucan is a strong immuneenhancing material showing strong splenocyte activation.A glucan (Figure 3) that was soluble in aqueous sodium chloride was isolated from the aqueous extract of the fruiting bodies of P. florida which stimulated the phagocytic activity of macrophages (Rout et al., 2005).Roy et al. (2009) studied an immune-enhancing water-soluble glucan (Figure 4) isolated from hot water extract of an edible mushroom, P. florida, cultivar Assam Florida and found that the glucan stimulates macrophages, splenocytes, and thymocytes.A heteroglycan (Figure 5) isolated from an aqueous extract of an edible mushroom, L. squarrosulus and analyzed for its structural chracterization with immuneenhancing activity by Bhunia et al. (2010) which showed macrophage as well as splenocyte and thymocyte activation.Dey et al. (2010) have also analyzed an immunoenhancing water-soluble polysaccharide (Figure 6) of an edible mushroom, P. florida blue variant and they have also found that the molecule activated macrophages, splenocytes, and thymocytes.A structural and biological study of a heteropolysaccharide (Figure 7) from aqueous extract of an edible mushroom, P. ostreatus has also been conducted by Maity et al. (2011) and revealed that the heteroglycan stimulates macrophages, splenocytes, and thymocytes (Table 4).

ETHNOMYCOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE OF ETHNIC-TRIBES IN INDIA
The traditional uses of the mushroom are known to the

6)-β-D-Glc
Repeating unit of heteroglycan isolated by Bhunia et al. (2010).aborigionals of Africa, India, Brazil and other countries.Wild mushrooms are a valuable non-timber forest resource used by mycophilic societies and their use has been documented in many countries around the world (Chang andLee, 2004, Roberto G.O et al., 2005;Sarma et al., 2010).They are sold in traditional markets (Roberto G.O et al., 2005) or commercially exploited as food (Bhaben et al., 2011) or medicines (Sachan et al., 2013).In Nigeria, Puff balls (Lycoperdon pusilum and C. gigantea) are used to cure sores, abrasion or bruises, deep cut, haemorrhages and urinary infections (Buswell and Chang, 1993).Traditional mycological knowledge of most Indian ethnic groups has proven to be extensive and profound, consuming nearly 283 species of wild mushrooms out of 2000 species recorded world over (Purkayastha and Chandra, 1985).

6)-β-D-Glc
Ethnomycological aspects were also dealt with by few workers in different parts of India and world over (Harsh et al. 1993;Bulakh, 2001).Some of the wild edible mushrooms have also been reported from Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh of North East India (Sing and Sing, 1993;Sing et al., 2002) whereas, from Assam, Baruah et al. (1971) reported few Basidiomycetous fungus of Sibsagar District.In Central India G. lucidum is used as herbal medicine by the Baiga tribes to cure asthma and Agaricus sp. is used in goiter and L. pusilum in wound healing and also for controlling bleeding (Rai et al., 2005).Sarma et al. (2010) reported that some Ethnic Tribes of Western Assam use the wild edible mushroom as food source.Ethnic tribes such as Garos, Adivashis, Bodos and Rajbangshis of Western Assam are consuming at least seven species of mushrooms as vegetables.But the potentialities of such species are yet to be studied in detail (Sarma et al., 2010).According to Bhaben et al. (2011), the ethnic tribes of Nagaland, India were also using wild edible mushrooms for food purposes.Their investigation revealed that more than 12 ethnic groups of Nagaland were found to be mycophilic and to have traditional mycological knowledge (complete data not available).A total of 13 species of fleshy fungi under 9 genera and 6 families were identified which are being used by tribals of Nagaland.Srivastava et al. (2011) conducted an ethnobotanical survey for distribution and utilization of Termitomyces species in Gorakhpur forest division of Uttar Pradesh, India and reported that tribal people and forest dwellers are using Termitomyces species as food and for medicinal purposes (not clearly known but used in malnutrition, weakness and their nutritional disorders).Traditional uses and medicinal potential of Cordyceps sinensis has been studied by Panda and Swain (2011) in Sikkim, India and found that most local folk healers/traditional healers use cordyceps in their herbal medicine for the treatment of 21 ailments including cancer, bronchial asthma, bronchitis, TB, diabetes, cough and cold, erectile dysfunction, BHP, jaundice, alcoholic hepatitis, among others.Beside that, seven numbers of wild mushrooms such as P. sajor-caju, T. heimii, T. microcarpus, V. volvaceae, A. auriculata, L. fusipes and L. tuberegium are also consumed by the Kaani tribes of Kanyakumari district in their different recipe (Sargunam et al., 2012).Recently, a survey has been conducted by Sachan et al. (2013) on indegineous knowledge of ethnic tribes from Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Odisha for utilization of wild mushrooms as food and medicine.All these studied mushrooms (Table 1) are used by several tribals (Santal, Kolha, Munda, Khadia, Bhumija, Bhuyan, Bathudi, Kudumi, Ho, Mankdias) living in the Similipal forest for their food as well as herbal medicinal purposes to cure malnutrition, weakness, other nutritional disorder like diarrhea, high blood pressure, fever, asthama among others.(Sachan et al., 2013).

CONCLUSION
India with diverse habitats with varied ecological conditions, harbors wide varieties of mushrooms potentially rich with nutritional and medicinal values.Several mushrooms are known to be the sources of various bioactive substances like antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitic, antioxidant, antiinflammatory, antiproliferative, anticancer, antitumour, cytotoxic, anti-HIV, hypocholesterolemic, antidiabetic, anticoagulant, hepatoprotective among others.These mushrooms have been used as ethnomedicines by tribals for treatment of various diseases.Many mushrooms still remain unreported and their nutritional as well as health benefits are unknown to us.If discovered, some of them may have high nutritional value and serve as valuable sources of bioactive compounds with many Thatoi and Singdevsachan 541 pharmaceutical applications.Further, several products such as antidiabetic mushroom powder, weight gain powder, sex enhancement medicine, mushroom chyawanprash, mushroom pickles among others.have been developed from mushrooms in India and other medicines such as anticancer, anti-tumor, antiinflammatory among others.are under trials.

Table 1 .
Diversity of Indian mushrooms and their location.

Table 1 . Contd. Mushrooms diversity 1 Location in India References Lycoperdon sp.
Natarajan (1995)any Department of Calicut University and the Tropical Botanic Garden and research Institute at Thiruvananthapuram were also surveyed macrofungi, but it was at only a preliminary stage.Natarajan started work at the Centre of Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras in 1975 and his group had collected mushrooms from the entire southern and south-western region.They started a series entitled 'South Indian Agaricales', publishing over two dozen papers.Natarajan (1995)presented a list of 230 agaric and bolete species distributed among 67 genera from southern Indian states excluding Kerala.
Singdevsachan et al. (2013)d 29.16%protein in dried mycelium of A. campestris, A. arvensis, M. esculenta and M. deliciosa, respectively.Sharma et al. (1988)reported 14.71 to 17.37% and 15.20 to 18.87% protein in the fruiting bodies of Lactarious deliciosus and Lactarious sanguiffus, respectively.Nutritional analysis of two edible wild mushrooms (Schizophyllum commune and Lentinula edodes) from northeast India have been studied byLongvah and Deosthale (1998)and reported that protein content of L. edodes (26%) is much higher than the S. Russula delica and Lyophyllum decastes, respectively.Jagadeesh et al. (2010)analyzed the proximate composition of V. bombycina and found 25.5% crude protein in mycelia and 28.3% in fruit body (Table2).Nutrient composition of Lentinus tuberregium in both wild and cultivated type were analyzed byManjunathan  and Kaviyarasan (2011)and found that the cultivated variety had higher concentration of protein (25%) than the Thatoi and Singdevsachan 531 wild one (18.07%).The nutritional values of 10 edible mushrooms from Western Ghats of Kanyakumari district have been analyzed byJohnsy et al. (2011)and reported that edible mushrooms are highly valued as a good source of protein ranged from 28.93 to 39.1% of dry weight (Table2).Manjunathan et al. (2011)reported the proximate compostion of four wild mushrooms from Tamil Nadu, India in which A. polytricha had the highest concentration of protein (37%) and Clitocybe sp. had the least (24.8%).Recently, nutrient content of 15 selected mushrooms of Nagaland, India have been studied byKumar et al. (2013)and found 22.50 to 37.80% protein (Table2).Further,Singdevsachan et al. (2013)reported the nutrient values of two wild mushrooms (Lentinus sajor-caju and Lentinus torulosus) from Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Odisha, India where highest protein content (28.36%) was found in L. sajor-caju and lowest (27.31%) in Lentinus torulosus.However, protein contents of mushrooms were reported to vary according various factors such as mushroom strain/type, composition of growth media, time of harvest, management techniques, handling conditions, and the preparation of the substrates

Table 2 .
Proximate composition of some Indian mushrooms shown in percentage.
-: No results.bulk of fruiting bodies accounting for 50 to 65% on dry weight basis.Free sugars amounts to about 11%.Nutritional analysis of two edible wild mushrooms (S. commune and L. edodes) from northeast India have been studied byLongvah and Deosthale (1998)and reported that 64.4% carbohydrate content present in L. edodes and 68% in S. commune (16%).Jagadeesh et al. 43% in S. commune to 52.07% in Boletus aestivalis (Table 2).Recently total carbohydrate contents of two wild mushrooms was studied by Singdevsachan et al. (2013) and found highest in L. sajor-caju (68.24%) and lowest in L. torulosus (64.95%).

Table 3 .
Mineral nutrients of some Indian mushrooms.
1 Ca, P, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Na, K and Mg contents in mg%; 2 Se content in µg/kg; 3 All mineral contents in mg/100g; 4 P and K in g/100 g and rest of the metals in mg/kg; X: negligible quantities; -: No results.

Table 4 .
Medicinal properties of some Indian mushrooms.