Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory Studies of mushrooms

Oxidative stress and inflammation are closely related to chronic inflammatory diseases including arthritis, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and hypertension. We studied the effects of the antioxidants and anti-inflammatory activities of various mushroom. We extracted the mushroom with ethanol and water and investigated the antioxidant properties of mushroom extracts with the DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity. The extracts showed potent antioxidant activity compared with trolox and tocopherol. In macrophages, nitric oxide (NO) works as a key inflammatory mediator and releases an array of cytokines in inflammation. We also investigated that the inhibition effects of mushroom extracts on NO in anti-inflammatory activities in which the generation of NO was turned down than LPS-induced inflammatory group in Raw264.7 cells when treating with 100 µg/ml and 200 µg/ml concentration of ethanol extracts, such as Isaria japonica Yasuda, Phellinus linteus (Berk. EtCut.) Teng, Inontus obliquus and Umbilicaria esculenta. In addition, mushroom extracts downregulated the production and mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1β. These results all suggest that mushroom extracts have antioxidants and anti-inflammatory activity.