Infectious diseases are considered a major threat to human health, and it is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Many of these deaths occur because patients do not have access to life-saving antimicrobial compounds when and where these are needed (Nellums et al. 2018). Pathogenic bacteria contribute to other globally important diseases, such as pneumonia, tetanus, typhoid fever, diphtheria, syphilis, and leprosy foodborne illnesses can be caused by some pathogenic bacteria such as Streptococcus, Clostridium, Salmonella, Corynebacterium, Treponema, Mycobacterium, Campylobacter, Shigella, Streptococcus and Pseudomonas (Wu et al. 2013; Gad et al. 2021).
Moreover, Infections due to resistant bacteria are now too common and some pathogens have even become resistant to multiple types or classes of antibiotics such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA), thus resulting in losing effective antibiotics for treatment of serious infection and can lead to death (Shawky et al. 2021). Furthermore, fungal infection generally presents more difficult therapeutic problems than bacterial infections because fungi are eukaryotes cells so compounds that can inhibit fungal growth have a higher side effect on host eukaryotic cells than antibiotics which target prokaryotic bacterial cells (Perfect 2012). In addition, fungal infections can be caused due to a long period to use of antibiotics which results in killing both pathogenic bacteria and healthy bacteria, and this alters the balance of microorganisms and results in an overgrowth of fungus (Wang et al. 2014). The continuous need for natural bioactive compounds that combat the microbial resistance to antibiotics was considered an admitted challenge, so many studies had been created to present some bioactive compounds especially from plants (Suleiman 2020) or from other sources like microorganisms (Soliman et al. 2022).
Many mushrooms have high-quality protein content with essential amino acids and are considered a good source of vitamins, such as thiamine, riboflavin, and ascorbic acid (Cardwell et al. 2018). In the last few years, several antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds were discovered in the fungi kingdom (Sevindik 2018). Moreover, mushrooms have a wide range of secondary metabolites of high therapeutic value such as antioxidant, diabetes, antiviral, antithrombotic, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor activities (Сhaturvedi et al. 2018). Biologically active compounds isolated from mushrooms include polypeptides, polysaccharides, glycopeptides, ribonucleases, proteases, and lectins as well as low molecular weight compounds such as lactones, terpenoids, and alkaloids (Alves et al. 2012).
In general, fungi could represent sources of several valuable compounds (Gad et al. 2022). As well, mushrooms could be considered a good source of antioxidants, such as ascorbic acid and gallic acid worked as protectors agents oxidative damage (Ferreira et al. 2009). Also, many edible and wild mushrooms such as Pleurotus ostreatus, and Laetiporus sulphureus showed high antimicrobial effects when extracted with polar solvents against both pathogenic bacteria and fungi (Younis et al. 2019). Hericium erinaceus, also known as Lion's Mane Mushroom or Hedgehog Mushroom, is an edible mushroom with historical usage in traditional Chinese medicine (Khan et al. 2013). Hericium erinaceus has been used traditionally and historically in East Asia to treat neurasthenia and general asthenia (Thongbai et al. 2015). It also has antitumor activities against HepG-2, MCF-7, El-4, and EC-109 (Kim et al. 2011). Additionally, H. erinaceus has other therapeutic uses and biological activities such as antioxidant and anti-aging (Zhang et al. 2012), antimicrobial (Shen et al. 2015), neuroprotective activity (Zhang et al. 2016), and inti-inflammatory potential (Chong et al. 2019).
Several mushroom species had been extracted with polar and non-polar solvents and exhibited antimicrobial activities against Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria (Gebreyohannes et al. 2019). Both Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) and oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus) mushrooms have antibacterial and antifungal properties. Moreover, extracts of the Mediterranean culinary-medicinal Oyster mushrooms P. eryngii var. eryngii, P. eryngii var. ferulae, P. eryngii var. elaeoselini, and P. nebrodensis showed growth inhibitory activity against S. aureus A, S. epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli (Schillaci et al. 2013). In addition, several researchers reported strong antioxidant activities by mushroom extracts (Kozarski et al. 2015). Medicinal mushrooms can be a source of phenolic compounds flavonoids and polysaccharides, cytokines, and lentinan that can reduce oxidation stress (Shaffique et al. 2021). In this study, we investigated the levels of as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antiviral activity of Hericium erinaceus, in addition to forecasting the chemical constituents by GC-MS and a fully automated TLC scanner.