Chanterelle mushroom health benefits and side effects 

Chanterelle mushroom health benefits

Chanterelle mushrooms are the most popular wild mushrooms that live in symbiosis with pine, spruce, oak, and hornbeam (1). These are orange, brown to yellowish-brown or yellow in color, highly desirable fruity, apricot-like aroma, flavor, firmness, and crunchiness mainly found in coniferous forests, and is harvested during summer and early autumn (2)

It is also available in the desiccated form in food stores and is in great demand due to its special flavor and slightly spicy taste. Chanterelle mushrooms consume as fresh, dried, frozen, or freeze-dried fruiting bodies in soups, sauces (with chicken or fish dishes) in risotto dishes, omelets, also consumed with cold processed meats (3).

Name: Chanterelle mushrooms

Scientific name: Cantharellus cibarius, family Cantharellaceae

Common name: Yellow Chanterelle, Girrole (France), Golden chanterelle (Britain), Yumurta mantari (Turkey), Capo gallo (Italy).

Harvested in: Asia, Africa, Western Europe, Central America, and North America

Nutritional value of Chanterelle mushrooms

Chanterelle mushrooms are highly nutritious with desirable taste and offer promising food in improving human health and preventing diseases. It is a good source of carbohydrates, amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids, fiber and vitamins, minerals, ascorbic acid, low fat, and low energy content (4). It also contains carotenoids, tocopherols, vitamin C, vitamin D known, with ergocalciferol, flavonoids, sterols, phenolics, indole compounds, and selenium (5)

Chanterelle mushroom health benefits

Chanterelle mushroom health benefits are due to various biological components such as antimicrobial activity, insecticidal properties, scavenging of lipid peroxidation, antioxidant activity, pain killer properties, and antiaging and anticancer activities (6).

1. Anti-inflammatory properties

One of the Chanterelle mushroom health benefits is it contains pyrogallol, flavonoids, and polysaccharides which possess significant wound-healing and anti-inflammatory properties which, therefore, helps in repairing the epidermal layer, increased collagen production, and cure wounds (7, 8).

2. Chanterelle mushrooms are rich in vitamins

Chanterelle mushrooms are rich in vitamin A, as they contain carotenoids that are the source of their yellow pigmentation. 

They are also rich in vitamin D which prevents night blindness, dryness of skin and resists infectious diseases of the respiratory tract (9)

Furthermore, Chanterelle mushrooms contain a considerable amount of vitamin B12 which is very beneficial for vegetarians as a source of vitamin B12 and contribute to the prevention of severe B12 deficiency in vegetarian (10).

3. Antioxidant properties of Chanterelle mushrooms

A rich source of flavonoids, quercetin helps in scavenging nitric oxide. It also contains phenol such as gallic acid, homogentisic acid, cinnamic acid derivatives p coumaric acid, and ferulic acid which act as a powerful antioxidant

Thus Chanterelle mushroom’s health benefits are due to the valuable sources of natural bioactive compounds. Have antioxidant activity and useful for the treatment of reactive oxygen species-related diseases, comprising atherosclerosis, inflammatory injury, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, autism, and aging (11)

4. Boost immunity 

Chanterelle mushroom acts as an immunoregulatory agent that boosts the immune system by proliferation effect on B cells and T cells which secrete antibodies and enhances the immune effect mainly in the body’s cellular immunity (12).

5. Healthy liver

Chanterelle mushrooms are a rich source of phenolic acids such as gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, and ferulic acid. It also contains flavonoids like rutin and quercetin which are responsible to decrease iron levels in blood plasma, also able to diminish the iron accumulation in liver tissue, resulting in decreased tissue injury and reduce tissue inflammation. Therefore, chanterelle mushrooms chelate excessive iron in the liver, potentially offering new natural alternatives to treat diseases correlated with iron overload (13).

6. Antimicrobial properties Chanterelle mushrooms 

Phytochemicals especially phenols and flavonoids which are beneficial for protection against various bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis, Shigella sonnei, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Yersinia enterocolitica (14).

7. Anti genotoxic properties due to ascorbic acid in Chanterelle mushroom

Chanterelle mushroom contains ascorbic acid which reduced mutation rate and β-carotene which prevents DNA damage. Thus consumption of chanterelle mushroom exhibit antigenotoxic effects, prevents mutation, increase cell genome damage repair system and prevent cancer (15).

8. Treat cancer

The presence of polysaccharides in Chanterelle mushrooms possesses interesting chemopreventive potential which inhibits the proliferation of various cells such as human cervix adenocarcinoma HeLa, breast carcinoma, human myelogenous leukemia, and colon cancer cells with the simultaneous absence of toxicity towards normal cells (16).

9. Treat hypertension

The presence of high amounts of antioxidants such as phenols and flavonoid contents in Chanterelle mushrooms is helpful in lowering blood pressure, reduce the risk of stroke in people with hypertension, and safe in pregnancy (17).

10. Antihypoxic properties

Chanterelle mushrooms are a good source of polyphenols which act as an anti-hypoxic agent because it is good radical scavenging activity reduces nitric oxide production, scavenge reactive oxygen species and strong iron-chelating activity neutralize hypoxia. Therefore reduce the risk of heart diseases, ischemia, bleeding, heart attack, and immature newborns tissue destruction and death (18)

11. Healthy brain

Polysaccharides obtained from chanterelle mushrooms possess the antioxidant capacity and effectively neutralize the negative changes induced by glutamatergic system activators which further prevent or inhibit neuronal death and neurodegenerative diseases (19).

Side effect of Chanterelle mushroom

1. Bioaccumulation of heavy metals

Chanterelle mushroom has the ability to bioaccumulate heavy metals like cadmium, lead, mercury which are toxic elements for which contents in food. However Chanterelle mushroom is affected by low contamination with toxic metals below the tolerance limits and also decreased after processing such as blanching and pickling, but precautions should be needed before consumption (20,21).

2. Cibaric acids in Chanterelle mushrooms

Cibaric acid and 10-hydroxy-8-decenoic acid are fatty acid derivatives that are produced in the Chanterelle mushroom as a response to injury. This may affect health however cibaric acid is destroyed during cooking, thus currently no reason for suspecting that the consumption of chanterelle mushroom poses a risk to consumers but if you have major diseases consult your doctor before consumption (22).

Edited By: Dr. Asha Jyoti Bharati

2 COMMENTS

  1. I’d like to learn more information about your comment that these are cultivated. I was under the impression all of the chanterelle species are wild collected and was not aware that any of them can be cultivated due to being mycorrhizal in nature. Thanks!

    • Thank you for pointing out that…yes we can not cultivate this mushroom. They are mainly found in coniferous forests and are harvested during summer and early autumn.

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