Abstract
The power of mushrooms as medicine was recognized nearly two thousand years ago. They are nature’s miniature pharmaceutical factories, rich in a vast array of novel constituents and wide open for exploration. Reishi mushroom also called “the mushroom of immortality” yields miraculous health benefits and contains over 400 bioactive compounds, which have a number of medicinal effects. 
 Medicinal Basidiomycetes mushrooms (including reishi mushroom, almond mushroom, pom-pom mushroom, and maitake mushroom) are usually consumed in China, Japan, Thailand, and Korea as immune response modifiers for prevention of cancer, or as nutritional support during chemotherapy, and for chronic inflammatory conditions such as hepatitis and other diseases.
 Presently medicinal mushrooms are mainly used as dietary supplements or functional food. Special precautions should be there, like cooking procedure, amount to consume, source of collection, and most importantly hypersensitivity (allergy) of individual person before consumption. Nevertheless, they have the potential to become real drugs from medicinal plants. Also, to explore them as dietary supplements, preclinical and clinical trials, and legal authorization are necessary.
Highlights
Reishi mushroom, called “the mushroom of immortality”, yields miraculous health benefits and contains over 400 bioactive compounds, which have a number of medicinal effects
According to the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology, medicinal Basidiomycetes mushrooms would have merit as prophylactic or therapeutic add‐on remedies in COVID‐ 19 infection, as well as for the immune overreaction and damaging inflammation that occurs with COVID‐19 attack [3]
Chaga mushrooms possess a powerful enzymatic system and a strong system of defense due to their parasitic mode of life. They have shown promising results in attenuation of inflammatory responses that have been associated with COVID-19—as reviewed by a research team from the University of Bradford, UK [5]
Summary
Called “the mushroom of immortality”, yields miraculous health benefits and contains over 400 bioactive compounds, which have a number of medicinal effects. Medicinal Basidiomycetes mushrooms (including reishi mushroom, almond mushroom, pom-pom mushroom, and maitake mushroom) are usually consumed in China, Japan, Thailand, and Korea as immune response modifiers for prevention of cancer, or as nutritional support during chemotherapy, and for chronic inflammatory conditions such as hepatitis and other diseases. According to the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology, medicinal Basidiomycetes mushrooms would have merit as prophylactic or therapeutic add‐on remedies in COVID‐ 19 infection, as well as for the immune overreaction and damaging inflammation that occurs with COVID‐19 attack [3].
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