Abstract
Mushroom beta-glucans show immunomodulatory, anticancer and antioxidant features. Numerous papers have been published in the last years on fungal polysaccharides, especially beta-glucans, demonstrating their various biological activities. However substantial data about beta-glucan contents in many mushroom species, especially wild mushrooms, are still missing. Therefore, the main objective of the study was to evaluate β-glucans in 18 species of wild mushrooms and three species of commercial mushrooms for comparison purposes. The contents of β-glucans were determined by the Megazyme method and with the Congo red method, which differ in analytical procedure. Among wild mushrooms, the highest mean β-glucan content assessed with the Megazyme method was found in Tricholoma portentosum (34.97 g/100 g DM), whereas with the Congo red method in Lactarius deliciosus (17.11 g/100 g DM) and Suillus grevillei (16.97 g/100 g DM). The β-glucans in wild mushrooms assessed with the Megazyme method were comparable to commercial mushrooms, whereas β-glucans assessed with the Congo red method were generally higher in wild mushrooms, especially in Russula vinosa, L. deliciosus and S. grevillei. This study indicates wild mushrooms as interesting material for β-glucan extraction for food industry and medicinal purposes.
Highlights
Glucans are polysaccharides composed of glucose monomers, present in the cell walls of bacteria, algae, plants, as well as yeasts, micro- and macrofungi
We found that the wild mushrooms with the highest content of β-glucans determined with the Congo red method were Lactarius deliciosus (17.11 g/100 g DM) and Suillus grevillei
We report on the content of β-glucans determined with two methods, the Megazyme method and the Congo red method, which allows to determine β-glucans with triple-helix chain conformation [29]. β -glucans were studied in 18 species of wild edible Polish fungi, with the aim of comparing them with commercial mushrooms and making comparisons between the species
Summary
Glucans are polysaccharides composed of glucose monomers, present in the cell walls of bacteria, algae, plants, as well as yeasts, micro- and macrofungi. Despite many differences between the composition and organization of mushroom cell walls, there are some solid elements that form the core scaffold. The main saccharide components of mushroom cell walls are chitin; α-glucans; and β-glucans, mainly 1,3–1,6-β-d-glucans and others like linear 1,3-β-d-glucans and linear and branched 1,6-β-d-glucans [1,2,3,4,5]. More complex polysaccharides occurring in mushrooms are heteropolysaccharides such as heterogalactans, heteroglucans and heteromannans. Heteropolysaccharides are characterized by extra variability on their monosaccharide composition, anomeric configuration, branching and linkage type [11]
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