Nutritional potential of biomass and metabolites from filamentous fungi

Mushrooms are very appreciated as food in several countries and, besides their fine taste, they have great nutritional value as sources of essential fatty acids, minerals, proteins and biologically active metabolites. By the other hand, nonbasidiomycete filamentous fungi from several genera such as Rhizopus or Penicillium are commonly not associated with human diet. Nevertheless, these and other non-basidiomycete filamentous fungi have also been reported to produce several metabolites useful to be added to food for preservation, coloring, flavoring or even aiming at a biological effect such as antioxidants and essential fatty acids. This review will focus on metabolites produced by filamentous fungi (including mushrooms) that have been showing potential for use by food industry such as sources of antioxidant agents (Rhizopus oligosporus, Pennicillium herquei), flavors (Ceratocystis fimbriata), color pigments (Phycomyces blakesleeanus, Blakeslea trispora), vitamins (Ashbya gossypii) and essential fatty acids (Syncephalastrum racemosum, Mucor circinelloides). Use of filamentous fungi biomasses for human nutrition as sources of proteins and minerals will also be reviewed.