Int J Med Mushrooms. 2026;28(10):45-60. doi: 10.1615/IntJMedMushrooms.2026066503.
ABSTRACT
Noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, cancer, and obesity pose a leading threat to human health largely driven by unhealthy diet. To mitigate the problem, intake of edible mushrooms has garnered attention worldwide owing to their beneficial health effects. Among them, Pleurotus citrinopileatus is widely cultivated in several countries such as China, Japan and Russia, due to taste, lucrative color and easy cultivation process. The present study aimed to evaluate mycochemical composition and antioxidant capacity of water-based preparations isolated from the yellow oyster mushroom. Qualitative tests for bioactive compounds revealed presence of flavonoids, phenols, alkaloids, saponins, cardiac glycosides, polysterols, terpenoids and tannins in both the aqueous extracts. Whereas quantitative analysis demonstrated that the infusion contained significantly higher levels of total phenolics (21.37 μg of GAE/mg of dry extract); while the decoction exhibited slightly elevated contents of flavanoid (8.8 μg of quercetin equivalents/mg of dry extract), β-carotene (0.032 μg/mg dry extract), lycopene (0.02 μg/mg dry extract) and ascorbic acid (0.89 μg/mg extract). Antioxidant evaluations revealed that infusion outperformed the decoction in all experiments, exhibiting remarkable 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino bis (3-ethylbenzothi-azoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging activity, as reflected by low half-maximal effective concentration (EC50) values of 303.6 and 70.69 μg/mL, respectively. In addition, the infusion also displayed notable Fe2+-chelating ability, total antioxidant capacity and reducing power portraying better bioactivity. Pearson's correlation analysis confirmed a strong positive relationship between phenolic and flavonoid contents and antioxidative activities of both the extracts. Overall, these findings suggest consideration of infusion extract from P. citrinopileatus as an antioxidant rich functional beverage for industrial application supporting Sustainable Development Goals 3, 12, and 17.
PMID:42962182 | DOI:10.1615/IntJMedMushrooms.2026066503