Mushrooms as the Source of Potential Antimicrobial Agents: A Review

Mushrooms have an acclaimed history of therapeutic use in traditional medicine. The prevalent occurrence of infectious diseases is becoming a worldwide problem, due to bacterial resistance against antimicrobial drugs which have been long used for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes. For this reason, the search has intensified for natural sources with antimicrobial activity. The literature contains scientific data about the high antimicrobial activity of mushrooms against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial species. In this review we have focused on compounds obtained from mushrooms which exhibit antimicrobial activity, commonly used methods for evaluation of antimicrobial activity and last but not least on syntheses of some selected compounds originally isolated from mushrooms. Keywords: Mushrooms, extracts, antimicrobial activity, synthesis, MIC.