Mushrooms and their extracts including purified ingredients, are currently used as foods, functional foods (and/or nutraceuticals), and medicines. These products have numerous bioactive compounds such as polysaccharides (mainly β–glucans), glycoproteins, nucleotide analogs, terpenoids, and polyphenols, which have exhibited antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, antiviral, anti-obesity, and immunomodulatory activities. In this review, we discuss the current information on the biactivities of 10 popular mushrooms in Korea. We also summarize the information on mushrooms and the active compounds derived from them, as well as mushroom-based products such as foods, functional foods, and medicines. We believe this review could provide useful information for scientists and consumers who seek to develop new products and promote healthy food habits and lifestyle.

Mushrooms have antioxidant, antitumor and antimicrobial activities, so they and their extracts including purified ingredients are being used as a great source of functional food, drugs and especially nutraceuticals. They have many bioactive compounds such as polysaccharides (mainly β-glucans), glycoproteins, nucleotide analogs, terpenoids and polyphenols. These compounds have biological activities such as anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-obesity, immunomodulating activity and etc. In this review, we discussed the current bioactivity information related to 10 famous mushrooms in Korea. Mushrooms and active compounds derived from mushrooms were summarized as well as mushroom products such as foods, functional foods, and medicines. It can provide good information for scientists and customers who want to develop a new product and to promote health and life quality.

Sparassis latifolia (formerly S. crispa) is used in food and nutraceuticals or dietary supplements, as rich in flavor compounds and β-glucan. Some previous studies have reported the effects of mushroom on brain function, including its neuroprotective effect. Thus, for this mushroom to be used as an effective nutraceutical for brain function, it would be desirable for it to contain other compounds such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in addition to β-glucan. In this study, the enhancement of growth and GABA production in the mycelium of medicinal and edible mushroom S. latifolia was investigated. Amino acids were added externally as the main source of nutrition, and the effects of amino acids were investigated using liquid medium, specifically amino acid-free potato dextrose broth (PDB). The amino acids added were L-glutamic acid (named PDBG medium) and L-ornithine (named PDBO medium). The growth of mycelia was determined to be 0.9 ± 0.00 g/L, 2.2 ± 0.16 g/L, and 1.93 ± 0.34 g/L PDBG respectively. The GABA content was 21.3 ± 0.9 mg/100 g in PDB medium, and it in PDBG 1.4% medium, at 115.4 ± 30.2 mg/100 g. However, the PDBO medium was not effective in increasing the GABA content of mycelia. Amino acids had little effect on the β-glucan content of mycelia. The β-glucan content was 39.7 ± 1.4 mg/100 mg, 34.4 ± 0.2 mg/100 mg, and 35.2 ± 9.2 mg/100 mg in PDB, PDBG 1.8% and PDBO 1.4% media, respectively. Addition of glutamic acid and ornithine positively affected the growth of S. latifolia mycelia, and glutamic acid positively affected GABA production; no degradation of GABA was observed with addition of glutamic acid.