• Energy Research

Global food production faces many challenges, including climate change, a water crisis, land degradation, and desertification. These challenges require research into non-traditional sources of human foods. Edible mushrooms are considered an important next-generation healthy food source. Edible mushrooms are rich in proteins, dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other bioactive components (alkaloids, lactones, polysaccharides, polyphenolic compounds, sesquiterpenes, sterols, and terpenoids). Several bioactive ingredients can be extracted from edible mushrooms and incorporated into health-promoting supplements. It has been suggested that several human diseases can be treated with extracts from edible mushrooms, as these extracts have biological effects including anticancer, antidiabetic, antiviral, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, immune-potentiating, and hypo-cholesterolemic influences. The current study focuses on sustainable approaches for handling edible mushrooms and their secondary metabolites, including biofortification. Comparisons between edible and poisonous mushrooms, as well as the common species of edible mushrooms and their different bioactive ingredients, are crucial. Nutritional values and the health benefits of edible mushrooms, as well as different biomedical applications, have been also emphasized. Further research is needed to explore the economic sustainability of different medicinal mushroom bioactive compound extracts and their potential applications against emerging diseases such as COVID-19. New approaches such as nano-biofortification are also needed to supply edible mushrooms with essential nutrients and/or to increase their bioactive ingredients.

Soil is the main component in the agroecosystem besides water, microbial communities, and cultivated plants. Several problems face soil, including soil pollution, erosion, salinization, and degradation on a global level. Many approaches have been applied to overcome these issues, such as phyto-, bio-, and nanoremediation through different soil management tools. Mushrooms can play a vital role in the soil through bio-nanoremediation, especially under the biological synthesis of nanoparticles, which could be used in the bioremediation process. This review focuses on the green synthesis of nanoparticles using mushrooms and the potential of bio-nanoremediation for polluted soils. The distinguished roles of mushrooms of soil improvement are considered a crucial dimension for sustainable soil management, which may include controlling soil erosion, improving soil aggregates, increasing soil organic matter content, enhancing the bioavailability of soil nutrients, and resorting to damaged and/or polluted soils. The field of bio-nanoremediation using mushrooms still requires further investigation, particularly regarding the sustainable management of soils.

The field of biotechnology presents us with a great chance to use many organisms, such as mushrooms, to find suitable solutions for issues that include the accumulation of agro-wastes in the environment. The green biotechnology of mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus L.) includes the myco-remediation of polluted soil and water as well as bio-fermentation. The circular economy approach could be effectively achieved by using oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus L.), of which the substrate of their cultivation is considered as a vital source for producing biofertilizers, animal feeds, bioenergy, and bio-remediators. Spent mushroom substrate is also considered a crucial source for many applications, including the production of enzymes (e.g., manganese peroxidase, laccase, and lignin peroxidase) and bioethanol. The sustainable management of agro-industrial wastes (e.g., plant-based foods, animal-based foods, and non-food industries) could reduce, reuse and recycle using oyster mushrooms. This review aims to focus on the biotechnological applications of the oyster mushroom (P. ostreatus L.) concerning the field of the myco-remediation of pollutants and the bio-fermentation of agro-industrial wastes as a sustainable approach to environmental protection. This study can open new windows onto the green synthesis of metal-nanoparticles, such as nano-silver, nano-TiO2 and nano-ZnO. More investigations are needed concerning the new biotechnological approaches.

Mushrooms have always been an important source of food, with high nutritional value and medicinal attributes. With the use of biotechnological applications, mushrooms have gained further attention as a source of healthy food and bioenergy. This review presents different biotechnological applications and explores how these can support global food, energy, and water security. It highlights mushroom’s relevance to meet the sustainable development goals of the UN. This review also discusses mushroom farming and its requirements. The biotechnology review includes sections on how to use mushrooms in producing nanoparticles, bioenergy, and bioactive compounds, as well as how to use mushrooms in bioremediation. The different applications are discussed under the water, energy, and food (WEF) nexus. As far as we know, this is the first report on mushroom biotechnology and its relationships to the WEF nexus. Finally, the review valorizes mushroom biotechnology and suggests different possibilities for mushroom farming integration.

Is there any relationship between plant nutrition and human health? The overall response to this question is very positive, and a strong relationship between the nutrition of plants and humans has been reported in the literature. The nutritional status of edible plants consumed by humans can have a negative or positive impact on human health. This review was designed to assess the importance of plant bioactive compounds for human health under the umbrella of sustainable agriculture. With respect to the first research question, it was found that plant bioactives (e.g., alkaloids, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics, and terpenoids) have a crucial role in human health due to their therapeutic benefits, and their potentiality depends on several factors, including botanical, environmental, and clinical attributes. Plant bioactives could be produced using plant tissue culture tools (as a kind of agro-biotechnological method), especially in cases of underexploited or endangered plants. Bioactive production of plants depends on many factors, especially climate change (heat stress, drought, UV radiation, ozone, and elevated CO2), environmental pollution, and problematic soils (degraded, saline/alkaline, waterlogged, etc.). Under the previously mentioned stresses, in reviewing the literature, a positive or negative association was found depending on the kinds of stress or bioactives and their attributes. The observed correlation between plant bioactives and stress (or growth factors) might explain the importance of these bioactives for human health. Their accumulation in stressed plants can increase their tolerance to stress and their therapeutic roles. The results of this study are in keeping with previous observational studies, which confirmed that the human nutrition might start from edible plants and their bioactive contents, which are consumed by humans. This review is the first report that analyzes this previously observed relationship using pictorial presentation.

Several kinds of food can be analyzed by the human sensory organs. In this review, we demonstrate the relation and importance of the color and bioactive molecules of food and their health effects. This work focuses on black foods, which can be found in both natural and processed forms, present in our daily life for several years without being noticed. Besides, the chemistry underlying the black color of black foods has not yet been fully understood. More than 130 black foods are reported in the current review, which belong to 3 main groups and 12 sub-groups. In studied black foods, melanins and anthocyanins are the primary pigments, along with other pigments such as chlorophylls, carotenoids, and tannins. The health potential of black foods is also discussed. Due to their high concentration of phytochemical and phenolic compounds, black-colored foods are beneficial in preventing diseases and boosting the immune system. As a promising natural pigment and antioxidant compound source, black foods could be used as functional foods. Several questions on black foods are still open and need more investigation, especially the mechanisms by which the black color is formed in fruits and vegetables.