Inedible mushrooms: a good source of biologically active substances.

In the course of our investigation on biologically active substances from inedible mushrooms in Japan, Germany, and Vietnam, we studied the chemical constituents of 22 species belonging to five families: Scutigeraceae, Polyporaceae, Xylariaceae, Thelephoraceae, and Paxillaceae. Various types of chemical substances were purified and characterized based on the modern spectroscopic methods and also on chemical reactions. These metabolites have shown a broad activity in many biological systems, such as antimicrobial, nematicidal, inhibition of NO production, anti-human immunodeficiency virus, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and antioxidant activities. These isolated metabolites did not only show interesting activities, but also are employed as chemical markers supported for chemosystematics of these families. This review paper deals with the chemical constituents of 22 species, their biological activities, and also a discussion on chemosystematics. Copyright 2006 The Japan Chemical Journal Forum and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.