Current Status of ‘Sanghuang’ as a Group of Medicinal Mushrooms and Their Perspective in Industry Development

Abstract

‘Sanghuang’ is one of the most important groups of medicinal macrofungi and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for the past two centuries. However, knowledge about ‘Sanghuang’ is distributed in journals of different disciplines, which has meant it is not well known. To facilitate the benefit of ‘Sanghuang’ to human health, here we summarize its current status as a group of medicinal macrofungi. ‘Sanghuang’ consists of all members of the genus Sanghuangporus, which now accommodates 14 described species distributed around the world. The powders or chips of basidiocarps as supplements are the main method of consumption. In the case that wild basidiocarps of ‘Sanghuang’ are not sufficient, cultivation is supposed to provide a solution to promote the long-term utilization of ‘Sanghuang’ basidiocarps. ‘Sanghuang’ mainly possesses antitumor, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, and other medicinal properties. Polysaccharides, polyphenols, pyrones, and terpenes are the main metabolites responsible for these medicinal functions. Finally, four directions are proposed to improve the sustainable utilization of ‘Sanghuang’ resources, viz. accurate identification and standard deposition, documentation of species diversity, multi-omics analyses, and a cover-all database. Hopefully, this review will draw more attention to the utilization of ‘Sanghuang’ as medicinal mushrooms in a large scale of industry.