## 1 Introduction  
Mushrooms are an important source of bioactive compounds, namely phenolic compounds, polyketides, terpen, steroids, and polysaccharides [1]. In recent decades, water-soluble polysaccharides from mushrooms have received increasing attention from the scientific community and pharmaceutical industry. According to previous studies, they have several therapeutic and prophylactic benefits such as immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumoral, hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, prebiotic, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].  
In recent years, consumer demand for minimally processed food products and clean labels has increased significantly [2]. This new trend in the food market has created new challenges for the food industry, particularly in replacing synthetic food preservatives with natural bioactive compounds. One of the main challenges of the food industry within food preservation is avoiding the growth of spoilage microflora and pathogens [9]. Some of the more naturally common antimicrobials used as food preservatives are essential oils, plant extracts, organic acids, and chitosan [10]. As mentioned before, water-soluble polysaccharides from mushrooms may have antimicrobial activity and other bioactive properties with potential in food industry applications [2]. However, until now, these applications have been limited.  
Water-soluble polysaccharides are obtained from mushrooms through a hot aqueous extraction preceded and followed by purification steps, in which protein and low-molecular components, such as mono- and disaccharides, oligosaccharides, amino acids, lipids, and phenolic compounds, are eliminated [3; 4; 5; 11; 12; 13]. Many of the eliminated compounds have bioactive properties and nutritional value. For instance, phenolic compounds are powerful antioxidants, and the biological value of protein from mushrooms is greater than the biological value of other non-animal source proteins [14]. Retaining these compounds during extraction could significantly enhance the functional and nutritional potential of mushroom-derived ingredients.  
To achieve this, the extraction methodologies applied in this study did not include purification steps (e.g., after aqueous extraction, the precipitation of soluble polysaccharides with ethanol was performed), which differentiate them from most procedures used by other research works that extract soluble polysaccharides from mushrooms [11; 12; 13; 15; 16]. Besides enabling the extraction of other essential nutrients and bioactive compounds together with polysaccharides, the absence of purification steps makes these methodologies simpler, faster, cheaper, and more environmentally sustainable, factors that could facilitate their scale-up in the food industry.  
In this context, the aim of this study was to develop aqueous extracts from three mushrooms species--_Pleurotus ostreatus_, _Pleurotus evrngii_, and _Agrocy ble cylindrace_--using an integrated approach to extract water-soluble polysaccharides and other compounds with potential in the food industry. Furthermore, the extracts' chemical composition (protein, glucans, and total phenolic compounds) and their antimicrobial (minimum inhibitory concentration), antibioticfilm, prebiotic, and antioxidant activities, namely regarding ABTS (2,2\({}^{\prime}\)-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothazoline-6-sulphonic acid)) and ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity), as well as their toxicity (using Presto Blue and Ames), were evaluated.