Antioxidant Activity of Honey Mushrooms (Armillaria mellea)

Mushrooms Basidiomycota have long been appreciated for their taste, flavour, desirable aroma, texture, nutraceutical and medicinal attributes. Honey mushrooms (Armillaria mellea) are edible mushroom generally used in traditional oriental medicine. The aim of this study was to examine extracts from the fruiting bodies of these mushrooms. The content of the components with antioxidant properties, such as total phenols, total flavonoids, β-carotene, lycopene and β-glucans were determined by spectrophotometric methods. The results obtained showed that the water extracts contained higher levels of total phenols and total flavonoids (367.1 and 548.5 mg.dm⁻³ gallic acid equivalent — GAE, respectively) in comparison with methanol extracts (108.2 and 113.4 mg.dm⁻³ GAE, respectively). Very low contents of β-carotene and lycopene were determined in the methanol extract (0.756 mg.g⁻¹ dry weight and 0.05 mg.g⁻¹ dry weight, respectively). Methanol extracts from the fruiting bodies of Honey mushrooms (Armillaria mellea) inhibited the uptake activity of 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicals by 45 %. The IC50 (mg of compound, that inhibit 50 % of DPPH radicals) of methanol extract was below 10 mg.cm⁻³ (6.448 mg.cm⁻³), suggesting a high antioxidant potential of fruiting bodies of the Honey mushrooms Armillaria mellea.