Abstract

Obameso J. O., Akinyele B. J*, Oladunmoye M. K. and Osho I. B.

Mushrooms have been valued throughout the world as both food and medicine for thousands of years. They represent a major and yet largely untapped source of potent pharmaceutical products. Apart from their nutritional potentials, mushrooms are also sources of physiologically beneficial bioactive substances that promote good health (Sagakami et al., 1991; Wasser and Weis, 1999). They produce a wide range of secondary metabolites with high therapeutic value (Demain, 1999). Ganoderma is a traditional Chinese medicine prescribed for the treatment of chronic hepatopathy, hypertension, bronchitis, arthritis, neurasthenia and neoplasin in China and other countries of the Orient (Arisawa et al., 1986; Dudhgaonkar et al., 2009; Majagi and Patil, 2009; Chen et al., 2009).