Fungi as a food

Masroms been used by people since Neolithic times for food, medicinal

purposes, as hallucinogenic agents in rituals, or as a means to start a fire (tinder

mushroom). For example, the Iceman (popularly named Ötzi), who lived ­between

3350 and 3100 bc, was found in 1991 in an alpine glacier at the Hauslabjoch

and carried three fungal objects. The mushrooms he carried were two differently

shaped fruit body pieces of the polypore fungus Piptoporus betulinus, each

mounted separately on a leather thong, and, found in his girdle bag, a relatively

large quantity of tinder material prepared from the “true tinder bracket” Fomes

fomentarius. The purpose of the other two mushroom objects is much less clear.

Researchers suggest that it may have been important to the Iceman for medical–

spiritual reasons. The best known use of mushrooms in the western world is as

a food material. Explicit mention of fungi as food can be found with ancient

Roman and Greek writers. In the East Asian world, mushrooms are known both

as food and for their medicinal purposes in traditional Chinese medicine.

Currently, there are at least 1,100 species of mushrooms eaten in more than

80 countries. Most of these are collected in nature and there are nearly a hun-

dred species of fungi for which some kind of cultivation system is known. All of

these cultivated species are saprophytes. The first written record on the cultiva-

tion of mushrooms is from China. Wang Zeng (ad 1313) in The Agriculture

Book described the culture of shiitake (Lentinula edodes). The cultivation of the

button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) was described for the first time in France

by Tournefort in 1707. However, for most mushroom species that are used as

food, there is no cultivation method even today. Most of the highly