Exploring mushroom β-glucans for their content, molecular weight and health benefits

Mushrooms are rich sources of bioactive polysaccharides, particularly β-glucans, which have gained attention for their therapeutic potential. This review highlights the structure, content, molecular weight, and health benefits of mushroom β-glucans. Mushroom β-glucans consist of β-(1 → 3) linked glucose that have backbones with β-(1 → 6) branching, making them resistant to human digestive enzymes and function as dietary fibres. Their content varies widely across species, growing conditions, and mushroom parts, with higher levels often found in stalks and in wild mushrooms. Molecular weight (MW) and β-glucan content play vital roles in their effectiveness against several diseases. MW is influenced by species, extraction methods and purity. Generally, β-glucan content and MW of whole mushrooms (wild & cultivated) varied between 1.95 and 60.78 g/100 g dry weight basis (dwb) and 1.1 × 10⁴ to 2.42 × 10⁶ Da (Da), respectively. Mushroom β-glucans have shown a number of health benefits, including anticancer, immunomodulatory, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, and gut microbiota modulating activities. These properties make mushroom β-glucans suitable ingredients for application in the development of functional and nutraceutical foods.