# Mushroom Nutrition as Preventative Healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa
## 4 African Mushrooms
### Bioactive Compounds of Mushrooms  
Unlike other foods, macro-fungi mushrooms act through major categories of specific bioactive molecules: (1) polysaccharide \(\beta\)-glucans or polysaccharide-protein complexes; (2) triterpenes; (3) polyphenols; (4) alkaloids; (5) metalloids; (6) short-chain fatty acids; (7) enzymes; (8) lectins; (9) nucleotides. Mushrooms feed on dead plant material, fulfilling an essential role in the carbon cycle while harbouring numerous species with diversity of metabolites of nutraceutical and therapeutic significance [60]. Mushrooms are heterotrophic (do not perform photosynthesis) and reproduce through spores absorbing complex organic compounds from the environment, as they are unable to synthesize their own organic matter [61]. The mycelia, which play important roles in the support and absorption of nutrients, rely solely on carbon obtained from other living organisms, i.e., plants, insects, and even other mushrooms, for growth. Figure 6: A termite and roadside vending of edible mushrooms, Termitomyces mushroom, a traditional source of seasonal income in miombo areas in Mozambique. Considerable debate is ongoing on the definitions of nutraceuticalts (first coined in 1989 by [PERSON]), functional foods (coined in Japan in the early 1980s), innovative food products, with extensive disagreements, and no existing international agreements, which compounds the confusion. We regard nutraceuticalts as products, which other than nutrition are also used as alternative for pharmaceuticals. There is abundant literature, and we have described the value of some edible mushrooms and culinary-medicinal mushrooms, their biomass and extracts, which contain many low molecular bioactive components termed secondary metabolites, since they are formed due to the enzymatic resections of primary substances (amino acids, sugars, vitamins) [62]. The most common secondary metabolites in mushrooms include polyphenols, phenolic acids, quinones, coumarins, groups of flavonoids, stilbenes, hydrolysate and condensed tannins, terpenes and terpenoids, alkaloids, lectins, sterols, lactones, antibiotics, and metal-chelating agents, all of which may activate the cell and humoral immunity, hence increasing resistance to disease [63; 64; 65; 66]. The different bioactive polyphenic compounds act as effective antioxidants based on their excellent ability to scavenge free radicals and act as reducing agents [67]. These large numbers of biological cell components and secondary metabolites have been shown to affect the immune system of the human consumer [68; 69]. Lignocellulose is the most abundant natural biopolymer on earth, and its structure being so complex affects its biodegradation and rate-limiting steps in the global carbon cycle [70]. Most species of mushrooms synthesize enzymes that may play important functions in the human organism. The vast list of enzymes in mushrooms include hydrolases, glucoamylase, pectinase, acid protease, endo-1,4-\(\beta\)-glucanases and 1,3-\(\beta\)-glucosidase, esterases, phenol oxidases, polykeletide synthase, hemicellulases (glucuronosylanase, arabinglucuronosylanase, and glucomannanase), the ligninolytic system, cell wall lytic enzymes (laminarinase, 1,4-\(\beta\)-D-glucosidase, \(\beta\)-N-acetyl-D-glucosaminidase, \(\alpha\)-D-galactosidase, xylanases, \(\beta\)-D-mannosidase, acid phosphatase, laccase, lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase, polygalacturonase-pectinase, ribonuclease, and many others [71; 72]. Thus, mushroom enzymes can break down polysaccharides and the ligninolytic system, releasing compounds or providing a remarkable nutritive value [73]. The _Hericium_ fruiting body contains polyphenol oxidases (PPOs), including tyrosinase and laccase, which are strong antioxidant substances [74]. Forest dweller _Hericium_ _erincaeus_ strains were first reported in temperate forests of North Africa and Ghana and known to have anti-peptic ulcer activity [44; 75; 76; 77].