Chemical Composition and Antiproliferative, Antioxidant, and Proapoptotic Effects of Fruiting Body Extracts of the Lingzhi or Reishi Medicinal Mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum (Agaricomycetes), from India

Ganoderma lucidum is a renowned medicinal mushroom exploited as a panacea because of the broad spectrum of its bioactivities, which give it invaluable nutritional and clinical implications. This research was implemented with an incentive to explore and quantify various macromolecules encompassed in the oriental fungus; these vary in concentration with respect to the development/growth phase, host plants, and geographic location of collection. Chemical profiling of G. lucidum confirmed the presence of myco-constituents, their amounts varying in response to extreme climatic conditions. G. lucidum extract exhibited elevated levels of all myco-constituents but flavonoids, which were more pronounced when in a parasitic relationship with their host plants. Proapoptotic efficiency portrayed by the extracts against a prostate cancer cell line (PC-3) was also found to be similar. The samples collected from the Bathinda region, with Azadirachta and Acacia trees as the host plants, showed several-fold augmentation in levels of G. lucidum gredients compared with other variants. Elevated levels of myco-constituents highlight their significance in inhibiting prostate cancer cell proliferation, reducing reactive oxygen species, suppressing invasive potential, and inducing apoptosis. It was thus concluded that G. lucidum grown on Azadirachta plants was more efficient in exhibiting potent biological activities than G. lucidum grown on other host plants.