A Review on General Nutritional Compounds and Pharmacological Properties of the <i>Lentinula edodes</i> Mushroom

Lentinula edodes is a macrofungus with great potential for therapeutic applications and serves as a model for investigating functional fungi properties and isolating pure compounds for pharmaceutical use. Mushrooms have a great nutritional value and present medicinal molecules including polysaccharides, terpenoids, sterols and lipids, that participate actively in several human disorders and modulate mechanisms involved in the immune system regulation. This review will focus on general nutritional compounds and pharmacological properties of L. edodes.