BIOSCIENCES BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH ASIA, March 2022. Vol. 19(1), p. 1-11 Published by Oriental Scientific Publishing Company © 2022 This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY). *Corresponding author E-mail: sarabioc@gmail.com Lentinula Edodes (Edible Mushroom) as a Nutraceutical: A Review Chandrasekaran Ponnusamy 1 , V.V. Sathibabu Uddandrao 1 , Sethumathi Ponnusamy Pudhupalayam 1 , Sengottuvelu Singaravel 2 , Tamilmani Periyasamy 3 , Ponmurugan Ponnusamy 4 , Puniethaa Prabhu 5 , Vadivukkarasi Sasikumar 1 and Saravanan Ganapathy 1 * 1 Centre for Biological Sciences, Department of Biochemistry, K.S. Rangasamy College of Arts and Science (Autonomous), Tiruchengode, India-637215. 2 Department of Pharmacology, Nandha College of Pharmacy, Erode, India-638052. 3 Department of Biochemistry, PGP College of arts and science, Namakkal, India- 637207. 4 Department of Botany, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India-641046. 5 Department of Biotechnology, K.S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode, India -637215. http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2964 (Received: 12 January 2022; accepted: 23 February 2022) Lentinula edodes (L. edodes) is the globally second most widely consumed mushroom that is well-known for its therapeutic potential and is a commonly used experimental fungus model. This review was focused on the benefits, efficacy, and potential mechanism of action of the extracts from L. edodes as described in the previous studies. With limited information on the health-related benefits of L. edodes, several investigators have now diverted their attention towards this macrofungus. Several studies have now revealed its antitumor, immune-modulating, antitumor, antiviral, antimicrobial, cholesterol-regulating, anti-atherosclerotic, antidiabetic, antioxidant, and homocysteinemia activities. Keywords: Lentinula edodes; Mushroom; Shiitake; Polysaccharides. Several cultures around the world have utilized mushrooms as highly nutritional and medical food item. In Asia, mushrooms are widely used as a medicinal ingredient and several studies have been conducted on their medicinal aspects 1 . In India, mushrooms are used as an important component of folk medicine and Ayurveda 2,3 . L. edodes, also known as flower mushroom, Shiitake, winter mushroom, golden oak mushroom, emperor mushroom, and Chinese black mushroom has been cultivated for thousands of years. In the last two decades, L. edodes production has raised substantially from 2.68 to 10.8 million tons 4 . Biochemically, the dried extracts of L. edodes comprise 58-60% carbohydrates, 20-23% proteins, 9-10% fbre, 4-5% ash, and 3-4% lipids (Table 1) 5 . Several studies have demonstrated the antitumor, immuno-regulation, anti-infammatory, antioxidant, and blood pressure lowering activities of L. edodes 6, 7, 8, 9 . In addition, L. edodes contains