Potential Activity of Mushrooms Against Viruses: Current Trends and Perspectives

Mushrooms fit into a perfect circular economy, since their fruiting bodies are used for medicine or food, the spent mushroom substrate and residue from fungal culture can be applied in the treatment of contaminated water. In this chapter, the potential activity of mushrooms against viruses will be explained. The main trends and current perspectives of the application of different mushroom extracts, such as aqueous and ethanolic extract of fruit bodies for the treatment of viral diseases will be shown. These include in vitro, in vivo studies and also clinical trials which demonstrate the efficacy of the treatment. The study of mushrooms focuses on preventative and therapeutic options safety and can be quickly implemented to bolster immune responses and helps into other potential antiviral strategies.