Trends of utilizing mushroom polysaccharides (MPs) as potent nutraceutical components in food and medicine: A comprehensive review

Background: Mushroom polysaccharides (MPs) act as a functional food and perform diverse biological activities. Significance of MPs in various health promoting products have been extensively reported by scientific community mainly on structural features, biological activities, potential uses and advances in their extraction, cultivation and biomolecular techniques which need to be reviewed for their better understanding and utilization. Scope and approach: From the perspective of how MPs were utilized in various nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and cosmeceuticals (NPC) products as health promoting agents, this review aims to comprehensively discuss MPs phyto-pharmacology, structural features, advances and trends of utilization. Moreover, this review also highlights the challenges and future consideration for its holistic utilization in different NPC formulations. Key findings and conclusions: MPs were found to be effective against various disease conditions mainly through modulating cell surface receptors. Overall from the last ten years, the research on MPs has increased tremendously and countries like China ranked first. Among various biological activities, MPs are a better choice for antioxidant followed by immunomodulatory, anticancer and anti-inflammatory activity and its use been increased as functional food. Various advanced techniques for MPs extraction, biomolecular characterization and artificial synthesis for NPC formulations are currently in use, however, the study on its complex structure, better culture and extraction conditions need further research. Moreover, a holistic approach needs to be adopted for mushroom utilization for the production of MPs as functional food. This review presents a comprehensive discussion on MPs research as functional compounds utilized in food and medicine and could be beneficial for various NPC formulations.