The Shaggy Ink Cap Medicinal Mushroom, Coprinus comatus (Agaricomycetes), a Versatile Functional Species: A Review

Coprinus comatus, an edible and medicinal mushroom, not only tastes delicious, but also has various pharmacological activities. Recently, it has been reported that researchers have extracted more and more active ingredients, including polysaccharides, comatin, active protein complexes, and phenols from fruit bodies, mycelium, or fermentation liquor of C. comatus and studied their corresponding functions. At present, researchers mainly focus on the hypoglycemic effect of C. comatus, while other effects are less studied. This paper summarizes not only the hypoglycemic effect of C. comatus, but also other functions, such as antioxidant activity, alcohol liver protection, cancer inhibition, antiandrogenic function, anti-inflammatory effect, treatment of leukemia, and so on, which will provide scientific basis for the deep processing and comprehensive utilization of C. comatus.