Mushroom nutraceuticals for improved nutrition and better human health: A review

•Nutritional composition and nutraceutical properties of Important medicinal mushrooms.•Mushrooms are famous due to their unique taste and flavour.•Polysaccharides and bioactive proteins having interesting biological and medicinal activities are present.•Good antioxidant properties along with inimitable bioactive compounds.

Mushrooms have always been treasured and appreciated due to their immense role in curing various degenerative diseases. Also their unique taste and flavour make them a demanding food for every man's plate. Information on their chemical composition, nutritional value and therapeutic properties has expanded dynamically during the last few years. Mushrooms contain 50 to 65% total carbohydrate, 19 to 35% proteins (with various biological and medicinal activities such as lectins) and 2 to 6% fat content of their dry matter. In mushrooms unsaturated fatty acids are found to be predominant over saturated fatty acids especially palmitic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid, while the proportion of linolenic fatty acids is very limited. Mushrooms rich in fat soluble vitamins along with ergosterol content are thought to be the only vegetarian source for vitamin D. Data on fibre content and composition is limited but polysaccharides like β-glucans boost up the nutritional value of mushrooms. It has been observed and established that mushrooms are wonderful food with their immense nutraceutical properties. And for this one of the reasons is the presence of bioactive molecules i.e. β-glucans, triterpenoids, antioxidants etc. These molecules are not only therapeutically strong but also immune-modulators. In this paper all the bioactive molecules in mushrooms along with their possible mechanisms have been discussed and highlighted so that these can be better harnessed for the mankind.