Medicinal Importance of Fungi

1. DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY
SHRI SHIVAJI EDUCATION SOCIETY AMRAVATI
SHRI SHIVAJI COLLEGE OF ARTS COMMERCE AND SCIENCE
AKOLA(MS)
NAAC Reaccredited with A Grade(CGPA of( 3.24)College with Potential for Excellence(status by UGC)Lead college
(status by SGBAU, Amravati) DST-FIST Support
BY
DR. RASIKA N. PATIL
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
SHRI SHIVAJI COLLEGE OF ARTS COMMERCE AND SCIENCE
“FUNGI IN MEDICINE”

2. INTRODUCTION
ALTHOUGH THE USE OF FUNGI AS A COMPONENT IN THE FOOD MAKING PROCESS IS MORE
COMMON NOW THAN IN THE RECENT PAST, THESE FOOD PRODUCTS, WITH SOME NOTABLE
EXCEPTIONS, ARE STILL NOT A FAMILIAR SIGHT TO WESTERN CULTURES.
THE USE OF THE TERM FOOD-MAKING PROCESS IS USED HERE TO MEAN THOSE FOOD
PRODUCTS THAT REQUIRE THE AIDE OF FUNGI IN THEIR PRODUCTION. FOR EXAMPLE, THE
ONE WITH WHICH YOU ARE MOST FAMILIAR IS BAKED BREAD. THE YEAST IS UTILIZED IN
MAKING THE DOUGH RISE SO THAT BREAD WILL COME OUT LIGHT AND FLUFFY. WITHOUT
YEAST, BREAD WOULD BE MUCH DENSER AND HARDER. BLUE CHEESE WOULD BE ANOTHER
EXAMPLES.
ASIAN CULTURES, HOWEVER, HAVE A LARGE VARIETIES OF SUCH FOOD, SOME OF WHICH
HAVE BECOME WELL KNOWN IN THIS COUNTRY. THIS IS POSSIBLY BECAUSE LARGER
NUMBER OF AMERICANS HAVE BECOME MORE ADVENTUROUS IN THEIR DIETARY HABITS
THAT HAS LED TO THESE TYPES OF FOOD BECOMING MORE COMMON PLACE IN OUR
SOCIETY.

3. I have excluded mushrooms from such foods since they are the actual food product rather
than being utilized to create another food product. We will cover some examples of such
products and discuss the processes by which fungi are integrated into their production.
Humans use fungi for many purposes, including as food or in the preparation of food.
Humans also use fungi for pest control.
In addition, fungi can be used to produce citric acid, antibiotics, and human hormones.
Fungi are model research organisms as well.

4. MYCOPROTEINS
 Mycoproteins is a protein made from fungus sold under the trademarked Name Quorn, Its available in
various formats as a Meat or Chicken Substitute.
 While some groups such as the centre for science in the Public Interest Suggest that mycoprotein is
potentially dangerous, Other organizations such as the FDA and the UK’s food standards agency have
determined that its safe enough to be sold to the public.
 Fortunately there are plenty of other Meat alternative with Fewer Associated risks than mycoprotein to
choose from.
 Companies producing Meat substitutes hope to answer the growing global need for protein, while
lowering the Carbon and Water footprint needed to raise livestock.

5. FUNGI IN USED
 Yeast have been used for thousands of years in the production of Beer, Wine, and Bread.
 Fungi not only directly produce substances that humans use as Medicine, but they are also
Versatile Tools in the Vast Field of Medical research
 Some fungi attack insects and Therefore can as Natural Pesticides
 Uses of fungi in medicine include micafungin, an antifungal agent, mycophenolate, used to
prevent tissue rejection, and rosuvastatin, which reduces cholesterol. Bread yeast is
important in baking, but studies of bakers yeast also led to the discovery of basic cellular
biochemistry and metabolism.

6. Some Food Making Terms Involving Fungi
 Aspergillus oryzae: Fungus involved in the making of soy sauce and miso.
 Bulgur: In Middle East, said of whole or cracked grain, usually wheat. It is then cooked. Making it a more edible product
that the whole grain, which was very hard and not digestible.
 Flat bread: Bread which is unleavened and therefore harder and heavier.
 Gorgonzola: An Italian variety of blue cheese made from cow's milk. As in all blue cheeses, it is made with the aide
of Penicillium roqueforti.
 Groats: European counter part of Middle East bulgur.
 Koji: The resulting product that arises when cooked soybeans that has been pressed into cakes and inoculated
with Aspergillus oryzae and allowed to grow for several days.
 Leaven: Dough from bread that contains yeast that will make bread rise. The act of taking leaven from active dough and
mixing it with fresh dough saved time and ensured that dough would rise when baking bread.
 Leavened bread: Bread made from dough that contains yeast, which results in a light and fluffy bread.
 Miso: In Japanese, literally fermented soybean paste. Used in making soup base, or flavoring agent. Requires the addition
of Aspergillus oryzae.

7.  Mold-ripened cheese: Cheese requiring the addition of a fungus in the making of the cheese.
 Penicillium camemberti: Species of fungus used in the making of Camembert Cheese and other related cheese.
 Penicillium roqueforti: Species of fungus used in the making of Roquefort Cheese, as well as other blue cheeses.
 Rhizopus oligosporus: Species of fungus used in the making of tempe.
 Roquefort Cheese: Cheese made in the town of Roquefort, France, requiring the fungus Penicillium roqueforti.
 Soy sauce (=shoyu): Condiment, believed to be Chinese in origin, requiring the use of Aspergillus oryzae.
 Stilton: British variety of blue cheese. As in all blue cheeses, it is made with the aide of Penicillium roqueforti.
 Tempe: In the strict sense, legumes that have been cooked and inoculated with Rhizopus oligosporus. The breaking
down of complex carbohydrates, in the legume, by the fungus, makes it a more digestible product. In tempe made in the
West, grains have also been used.
 Unleavened bread: Bread that is made from dough that does not contain yeast to make the dough rise. The product is
a heavy and flat bread.
 Yeast cake: A yeast product that is made from yeast, which has had its water removed, thereby suspending its
metabolism and making it possible to store the yeast for long periods of time. This is how yeast is often sold,
commercially.

8. FUNGI
FUNGI ARE AN UNDERSTUDIED, BIOTECHNOLOGICALLY VALUABLE GROUP OF ORGANISMS. DUE TO THE IMMENSE RANGE
OF HABITATS THAT FUNGI INHABIT, AND THE CONSEQUENT NEED TO COMPETE AGAINST A DIVERSE ARRAY OF OTHER
FUNGI, BACTERIA, AND ANIMALS, FUNGI HAVE DEVELOPED NUMEROUS SURVIVAL MECHANISMS.
THE UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES OF FUNGI THUS HERALD GREAT PROMISE FOR THEIR APPLICATION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY AND
INDUSTRY. MOREOVER, FUNGI CAN BE GROWN WITH RELATIVE EASE, MAKING PRODUCTION AT SCALE VIABLE. THE
SEARCH FOR FUNGAL BIODIVERSITY, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A LIVING FUNGI COLLECTION, BOTH HAVE INCREDIBLE
ECONOMIC POTENTIAL IN LOCATING ORGANISMS WITH NOVEL INDUSTRIAL USES THAT WILL LEAD TO NOVEL PRODUCTS.
THIS MANUSCRIPT REVIEWS FIFTY WAYS IN WHICH FUNGI CAN POTENTIALLY BE UTILIZED AS BIOTECHNOLOGY. WE
PROVIDE NOTES AND EXAMPLES FOR EACH POTENTIAL EXPLOITATION AND GIVE EXAMPLES FROM OUR OWN WORK AND
THE WORK OF OTHER NOTABLE RESEARCHERS.
WE ALSO PROVIDE A FLOW CHART THAT CAN BE USED TO CONVINCE FUNDING BODIES OF THE IMPORTANCE OF FUNGI
FOR BIOTECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND AS POTENTIAL PRODUCTS. FUNGI HAVE PROVIDED THE WORLD WITH
PENICILLIN, LOVASTATIN, AND OTHER GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT MEDICINES, AND THEY REMAIN AN UNTAPPED RESOURCE
WITH ENORMOUS INDUSTRIAL POTENTIAL.

9. EDIBLE FUNGI
 In addition to eating Edible Fruiting Bodies , such as Mushrooms directly various fungi
have been used to supplement and add flavour to foods
 Yeasts are used in the fermentation of fruits to produce wines cereals to make beer in
Bread manufacture and flavouring in the form of yeast extract

13. THANK YOU