Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 28, 2023; 29(20): 3048-3065
Published online May 28, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i20.3048
Hericium erinaceus, a medicinal fungus with a centuries-old history: Evidence in gastrointestinal diseases
Antonietta Gerarda Gravina, Raffaele Pellegrino, Salvatore Auletta, Giovanna Palladino, Giovanni Brandimarte, Rossella D’Onofrio, Giusi Arboretto, Giuseppe Imperio, Andrea Ventura, Marina Cipullo, Marco Romano, Alessandro Federico
Antonietta Gerarda Gravina, Raffaele Pellegrino, Salvatore Auletta, Giovanna Palladino, Rossella D’Onofrio, Giusi Arboretto, Giuseppe Imperio, Andrea Ventura, Marina Cipullo, Marco Romano, Alessandro Federico, Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples 80138, Italy
Giovanni Brandimarte, Division of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Cristo Re Hospital, Rome 00167, Italy
Author contributions: Gravina AG, Pellegrino R, Romano M, and Federico A collected the literature, wrote the initial manuscript, conceptualised the tables and figures, and contributed equally to this work; Gravina AG, Pellegrino R, Auletta S, Palladino G, Brandimarte G, D’Onofrio R, Arboretto G, Imperio G, Ventura A, Cipullo M, Romano M, and Federico A conceptualised the structure of the text, critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content, and read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Antonietta Gerarda Gravina, MD, MSc, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via L. de Crecchio, Naples 80138, Italy. antoniettagerarda.gravina@unicampania.it
Received: March 3, 2023
Peer-review started: March 3, 2023
First decision: March 21, 2023
Revised: March 22, 2023
Accepted: April 21, 2023
Article in press: April 21, 2023
Published online: May 28, 2023
Processing time: 83 Days and 14.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Various natural and non-pharmacological principles have been used to treat gastrointestinal disorders. Hericium erinaceus is a Chinese mushroom with a centuries-old medicinal tradition. Several preclinical studies have demonstrated their anti-inflammatory and antineoplastic potential. The therapeutic activity of this mushroom also targets inflammatory bowel diseases, as demonstrated in several animal experiments. However, evidence from in vivo studies is not generally available for patients with gastrointestinal disorders. It is also unclear which component of this mushroom has the greatest potency and the best safety profile.