Eating Mushrooms-Boon or Bane!: Know Health Benefits of Edible Mushrooms

Mushrooms are the distinctive and visible fruiting bodies of macroscopic filamentous fungi that grow above or below ground surface. Mushrooms have been a part of the human diet as a source of both food and medicine for centuries. Edible mushrooms are a valuable source of nutrients and bioactive compounds in addition to a growing appeal for humans by their flavours and culinary features. Recently, they have become increasingly attractive as functional foods for their potential beneficial effects on human health. They are believed to have therapeutic properties in relation to cancer, heart disease, viral infection, cholesterol levels and hypertension. Relevant nutritional aspects of mushrooms include a high fiber supply, a low fat content with low trans isomers of unsaturated fatty acids and a low concentration of sodium as well as they are good source of health beneficiary components such as eritadenine, phenolic compounds, sterols, chitosan, triterpenes which are mainly responsible agents for some hitherto healthy properties.