1 Medicinal Fungi Azhar A.F. Al-Attraqchi PhD Dept. of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq Abstract Medicinal fungi are those fungi, which produce medically significant metabolites or can be induced to produce such metabolites using biotechnology. The range of medically active compounds that have been identified include antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, cholesterol inhibitors, psychotropic drugs, immunosuppressants and even fungicides. Although initial discoveries centered on simple molds of the type that cause spoilage of food, later work identified useful compounds across a wide range of fungi. Keywords Medicinal, fungi Citation Al-Attraqchi AAF. Medicinal fungi. Iraqi JMS. 2019; 17(1): 1-3. doi: 10.22578/IJMS.17.1.1 List of abbreviation: None lthough fungi products have been used in traditional and folk medicines, probably since pre-history, the ability to identify beneficial properties and then extract the active ingredient started with the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. Since that time, many additional antibiotics have been discovered and the potential for fungi to synthesize biologically active molecules, useful in a wide range of clinical therapies, has been extensively exploited. Pharmacological research has now isolated antifungal, antiviral, and antiprotozoan, isolates from fungi (1) . The fungus with probably the longest record of medicinal use, Ganoderma lucidum, is known in as mannentake "10,000-year mushroom". Traditional Chinese medicine. Notable medicinal mushrooms with a well-documented history of use include Agaricus subrufescens (2) . Studies have shown another species of genus Ganoderma, G. applanatum, contains compounds with anti-tumor and anti-fibrotic properties. Inonotus obliquus was used in Russia as early as the 16 th century, and it featured in Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's 1967 novel Cancer Ward (3) . Applications Cancer Paclitaxel is synthesized using Penicillium raistrickii and plant cell fermentation. Fungi can synthesize other mitotic inhibitors including vinblastine, vincristine, podophyllotoxin, griseofulvin, aurantiamine, oxaline, and neoxaline (4) . 11,11'-Dideoxyverticillin A, an isolate of marine Penicillium, was used to create dozens of semi- synthetic anticancer compounds (5) . 11,11'- Dideoxyverticillin A, andrastin A, barceloneic acid A, and barceloneic acid B, are farnesyl transferase inhibitors that can be made by Penicillium (6) . 3-O-Methylfunicone, anicequol, duclauxin, and rubratoxin B, are anticancer/cytotoxic metabolites of Penicillium. Penicillium is a potential source of the leukemia medicine asparaginase (7) . Iraqi JMS Published by Al-Nahrain College of Medicine P-ISSN 1681-6579 E-ISSN 2224-4719 Email: iraqijms@colmed-alnahrain.edu.iq http://www.colmed-alnahrain.edu.iq http://www.iraqijms.net Iraqi JMS 2019; Vol. 17(1)