Medicinal Fungi

In Context

• Recently, an analytical study of medicinal fungi carried out by researchers from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai (IMSc), shows that some chemicals they secrete may find use as novel drugs.

About

• They used a database, MeFSAT (Medicinal Fungi Secondary Metabolites And Therapeutics), which compiles information on 184 medicinal fungi, including mushrooms.                                    
• Medicinal fungi belong to two taxonomic divisions namely, basidiomycota and ascomycota. 
  • Mushrooms belong to the basidiomycota division. 
  • An example is Agaricus bisporus, the button mushroom, which can be consumed. 
• Fungi belonging to the ascomycota division are generally not mushrooms. 
  • Among these are Isaria cicadae and Shiraia bambusicola which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.     

Significance

• Secondary metabolites are chemical compounds that fungi produce when they are stressed. 
• These are not strictly essential and hence the name ‘secondary’. 
• They enhance the fungus’ ability to survive. 
• The work has been published in the preprint server BioRXiv. 
• Cordycepin, a secondary metabolite produced by Cordyceps species of fungus, is known to have anti-tumour properties.

Source:TH