Mushrooms as Functional Foods
Scientific evidence supports the view that diet controls and modulates many functions of the human body including disease, accordingly diet participates in the maintenance of the state of good health. Arising from this awareness of the relationship between diet and disease has evolved the concept of functional foods and the development of functional food science. The term functional food according to the Institute of Food Technology IFT Expert Report (1) is defined as foods and food components that provide health benefit beyond basic nutrition. Examples may include conventional foods; fortified, enriched, or enhanced foods; and dietary supplements. Edible mushrooms and mushroom products have high nutritional value providing health benefits and can be referred to as functional foods.
It is now well documented that there may be thousands of phytonutrients in plants that protect against disease. Often grouped with these are the medicinal mushrooms which may be among the oldest examples of foods that contain disease fighting nutrients. As mushroom growers we like to applaud the unique features of our products as they relate to taste, texture, and nutritional benefits and I personally would like people to eat mushrooms because as my mother would say they are “good and good for you”. We as growers are less likely to make health claims for our cultivated mushrooms although many examples of their benefits exist in the scientific literature. I have been fortunate to not only work for a major mushroom company (GMI) but also to have worked at a major research institute (MSU) where I and my colleagues have been able to examine health-beneficial qualities of edible mushrooms as functional foods. Our research efforts focused on bioactive compounds isolated from cultivated mushrooms that modulate immune and inflammatory processes. Specifically, we evaluated the cyclooxygenase inhibitory and antioxidant activities of compounds isolated from our cultivated maitake, velvet pioppini, forest nameko and oyster mushrooms (2-5).
It is well known that illness including cancer has a close relationship with inflammation and cellular oxidation. Inflammatory cells can induce genotoxic effects and of promoting neoplastic transformations in nearby cells. Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents play an important role in cancer prevention. In the inflammatory process COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes are involved in the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins. The prostaglandins formed by enzymatic activity of COX-1 are involved in regulation of homeostatic functions throughout the body, whereas prostaglandins formed by COX-2 mediate pain and inflammation. Naturally occurring selective cyclooxygenase inhibitors are significant since they can be consumed as foods and supplements reducing inflammation with fewer side effects. The culinary mushrooms listed above contained abundant phytochemicals (ceramides, cerebrosides, sterols, glycerides, trehalose, and α-glucans) which provided significant antioxidant and cyclooxygenase enzyme activities and suggests they should be considered as functional foods with health benefits.
Written by Gary Mills
References
1. Functional foods: opportunities & challenges. F. Clydesdale. 2004. Food Technology. 58(12): 35-40.
2. Cyclooxygenase inhibitory and antioxidant compounds from the fruiting body of an edible mushroom, Agrocybe aegerita. Y. Zang, G.L. Mills, and M.G. Nair. 2003. Phytomedicine. 10: 386-390.
3. Health-beneficial qualities of the edible mushroom, Agrocybe aegerita. T. Diyabalanage, V. Mulabagal, G. Mills, D. L. DeWitt, and M. G. Nair. 2008. Food Chemistry. 108: 97-102.
4. Liperoxidation and cyclooxygenase enzyme inhibitory compounds from the lipophilic extracts of some culinary-medicinal higher basidiomycetes mushrooms. T. Diyabalanage, V. Mulabagal, G. Mills, D. L. DeWitt, and M.G. Nair. 2009. International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms. 11(4): 375-382.
5. Cultivated maitake mushroom demonstrated functional food quality as determined by in vitro bioassays. A.A. Dissanayake, C-R Zhang, G. L. Mills, and M. G. Nair. 2018. Journal of Functional Foods. 44: 79-85.
Maitake and Kimchi Fried Rice