Cultivation of Medicinal Fungi in Bioreactors

The reason that the products of medicinal fungi are not more widespread and more commercialized is that the most effective fungal species with therapeutic properties are extremely rare in nature. The production of medicinal fungi fruit bodies by cultivation on farms has brought greater accessibility and usability of fungal polysaccharides and terpenoids in practice. Comprehensive production of fungal biomass and substances in bioreactors using submerged and solid-state cultivation utilizing a number of secondary raw materials from the agricultural, food, and wood processing industries has enabled faster, more controlled, and higher volume production of fungal biomass and ingredients. Submerged cultivation technology was found to be faster and more appropriate for human use, while solid-state cultivation seems to be most appropriate for the production of pharmaceutically active animal feed supplements, for which the whole fermented substrate can be used as the product.