Phylloporia (Hymenochaetales, Basidiomycota), a Medicinal Wood-inhabiting Fungal Genus with Much Potential for Commercial Development

ABSTRACT

Phylloporia, a wood-inhabiting fungal genus, has been used as an anti-inflammatory food taken in the form of tea in Shandong Province, China. The species used in folklore have been clarified as Phylloporia fontanesiae and P. lonicerae. To promote the utilization of Phylloporia and its benefit to human health, sources, medicinal metabolites and functions, safety, and commercial potentials are summarized in this review. The fruiting bodies are the most acceptable sources of Phylloporia, but their shortage makes fermented mycelia a good alternative. Polysaccharides, sterols, acidic components, styryl compounds and polychlorinated compounds are the most well-studied medicinal metabolites extracted from Phylloporia. The main medicinal functions revealed from Phylloporia include antitumor, immunomodulation, antioxidant, neuroprotection, prevention of diabetes and its complications, and antimicrobial activity. The safety of Phylloporia has been demonstrated by experimenting for acute and subchronic oral toxicity of fermented mycelia on animals. A large number of patents even if some are being examined have indicated the commercial potentials of Phylloporia. In the future, increased efforts regarding species identification, artificial cultivation and multi-omics data will contribute to the deeper exploration of the medicinal potential of Phylloporia.

KEYWORDS:

• Commercial potentials
• macrofungi
• metabolites
• Phylloporia fontanesiae
• Phylloporia lonicerae

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Genevieve Gates (Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, Australia) for improving this manuscript. The research was financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 31970012, 32000012 & 31970014) and Biological Resources Programme, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KFJ-BRP-017-12). LWZ thanks to the support of Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 2017240). XMT thanks to the support of Shandong Provincial University Youth Innovation and Technology Program (No. 2019KJE003).

Disclosure Statement

All authors have no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests.

Correction Statement

These authors contributed equally.This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31970012, 32000012, 31970014] Biological Resources Programme, Chinese Academy of Sciences [KFJ-BRP-017-12]; Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS [2017240]; Shandong Provincial University Youth Innovation and Technology Program [2019KJE003].