Antioxidant properties of several specialty mushrooms

Four specialty mushrooms are commercially available in Taiwan, including Dictyophora indusiata (basket stinkhorn), Grifola frondosa (maitake), Hericium erinaceus (lion's mane), and Tricholoma giganteum (white matsutake). Methanolic extracts were prepared from these specialty mushrooms and their antioxidant properties were studied. The antioxidant activities at 1.2 mg ml(-1) were in the order of basket stinkhorn > lion's mane > maitake > white matsutake. Basket stinkhorn showed an excellent reducing power of 1.09 at 3 mg ml(-1). At 6.4 mg ml(-1), scavenging effects on 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals were 92.1% for basket stinkhorn and 63.2-67.8% for other specialty mushrooms. At 40 mg ml(-1), scavenging effects were 75.0 and 69.4% for basket stinkhorn and lion's mane and 39.6 and 47.4% for maitake and white matsutake, respectively. At 24 mg ml(-1), chelating effects on ferrous ions were 91.9% for basket stinkhorn and 46.4-52.0% for other specialty mushrooms. Total polyphenols were the major naturally occurring antioxidant components found in the methanolic extracts from these specialty mushrooms. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.