Morphotaxonomy and comparative mycochemical study and antioxidant activity of hydromethanol, infusion and decoction extracts from Russula brevipes Peck

Nature has bestowed Jammu and Kashmir with extraordinary climatic conditions, apt for different mushroom varieties. In the view of inventorization of macrofungal flora of the state, a recent expedition was carried out in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park resulting isolation of several wild edible specimens. One of those collected taxa was identified as Russula brevipes Peck based on morpho-taxonomical features that has been described herein. The research was further extended to register its bioactive compounds as well as pharmacological prospect and for that different extraction conditions were used. Comparatively, decoction and infusion presented better radical scavenging and metal ion chelating activity respectively than that of hydro-methanol formulation. The finding could be justified by the presence of phenolics in higher extent suggesting water in high temperature facilitates leaching of therapeutics in superior amount from solid matrices. Overall study highlights consideration of R. brevipes as a natural source of valuable compounds with potency to reduce oxidative stress.