Medicinal mushrooms are higher fungi with additional nutraceutical attributes having low fat content and a trans-isomer of unsaturated fatty acids along with high fibre content, triterpenes, phenolic compounds, sterols, eritadenine and chitosan. They are considered as the unmatched source of healthy foods and drugs. They have outstanding attractive taste, aroma and nutritional value, so are considered as functional food, which means they are beneficial to the body not only in terms of nutrition but also for improved health. Medicinal mushrooms and their extract have a large number of bioactive components called secondary metabolites. The presence of polysaccharide β-glucans or polysaccharide-protein complexes content in mushroom extract have great therapeutic applications in human health as they possess many properties such as anti-diabetic, anti-cancerous, anti-obesity, immunomodulatory, hypocholesteremia, hepatoprotective nature along with anti-aging. The present review focuses on the comprehensive account of the medicinal properties of various medicinal mushrooms. This will further help the researchers to understand the metabolites and find other metabolites as well from the mushrooms which can be used for the potential development of the drugs to treat various life-threatening diseases.

Laccases (E.C. 1.10.3.2 benzenediol: oxygen oxidoreductase) are an interesting group of N glycosylated multicopper blue oxidase enzymes and the widely studied enzyme having a broad range of substrate specificity of both phenolic and non-phenolic compounds. They are widely found in fungi, bacteria plant, insects, and in lichen. They catalyze the oxidation of various phenolic and non-phenolic compounds, with the concomitant reduction of molecular oxygen to water. They could increase productivity, efficiency, and quality of products without a costly investment. This chapter depicts the applications of laccase enzyme from white rot fungi, having various industrial (such as textile dye bleaching, paper and pulp bleaching, food includes the baking, it also utilized in fruit juice industry to improve the quality and stabilization of some perishable products having plant oils), pharmaceutical (as it has potential for the synthesis of several useful drugs such anticancerous, antioxidants, synthesis of hormone derivatives because of their high value of oxidation potential) significance.

Environmental pollution is becoming one of the major threats around the world because of the release of toxic and hazardous substances from food, pharmaceutical, and other industries as well. These wastes are mainly dumped indiscriminately which ultimately reached water bodies, thereby affecting marine ecosystem. Therefore, effective effluent treatment is an important step which can help in conserving our water resources. White rot fungus (WRF) have been shown to degrade and mineralize a wide variety of wastes because of their nonspecific extracellular lignin mineralizing enzymes (LMEs). These enzymes are used for the decolorization of synthetic dyes. They help in the degradation of pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and pharmaceuticals wastes like- anti-inflammatory, lipid regulatory, antiepileptic drugs, endocrine disrupting chemicals, etc. They also help in degrading the food waste and convert them into useful products which can be used as food, feed, fodder; some of these wastes are lignocellulosic waste, viticulture waste, olive mill waste, molasses waste, etc.

Anjeerodiplosis peshawarensis Mani is a serious pest in North India of the fruit of the country fig (Ficus carica), which is its only known host. The midges are abundant, hovering under the host tree in the mornings and at dusk, and breed throughout the year, except in the summer from April until the July rains. In this period newly formed fruits are not infested, but in other months scarcely 30 per cent, of the fruits remain free from attack.Eggs are laid in fruits when they one week old, succulent, and of the size of a pea. The eggs are minute, hyaline, unsculptured, oval and pedicellate and occur in bundles of 16. Incubation takes three days in September and March and five days in December and January. In laboratory tests, average viability in January was found to be about 83 per cent.The entire larval period is passed inside the figs, each of which may contain 200–300 larvae. There are four larval instars, which differ in size according to Dyar's law and in morphology. The first-instar larva is devoid of cuticular outgrowths and does not show spiracles; the second and third instars have nine pairs of spiracles and possess characteristic spines, warts and tubercles; the fourth instar develops the sternal spatula. The entire larval period lasts three weeks from the middle of August to October and four weeks in January and February. From the middle of April until the July rains, fourth-instar larvae remain inside the figs. When the larval period is three weeks, the first and second instars together and the third and fourth instars separately last about a week.Full-grown fourth-instar larvae bore out of the fruit and drop to the ground, where they jump for some time with the aid of their sternal spatula. They finally pupate in the soil without forming a cocoon but become covered in a protective case composed of soil particles that adhere to the larval skin. Early fourth-instar larvae, which do not have a sternal spatula, if taken from the fruits, may also successfully pupate, and the pupal period is normal. This period is 10–15 days between July and November and 25–26 days in January and February. It is shortest (10 days) in the rainy season, when both temperature and humidity are high.The pupa is obtect, creamy white and bears poorly developed cephalic horns and bristles, well developed thoracic horns and many spines and cuticular outgrowths. Mortality in the pupal stage is between 15 and 30 per cent.Emergence of the adults invariably occurs in the early hours of the day. Two or three days before emergence, the protective case becomes detached piecemeal. Males emerge before females. The ratio of males to females on the day of emergence is 1:2 between March and December and 2:3 in January and February. Copulation starts soon after emergence and lasts from 60 to 90 seconds.There is considerable overlapping of generations. On the basis of the time required for completion of the life-cycle in different months, it is calculated that seven generations are completed in a year.

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