Lepista nuda benefits and side effects

Lepista nuda

Know in one minute about Lepista nuda 

  • Lepista nuda is a wild edible mushroom with both economic and medical value.
  • It has a mild pleasant taste, floral or like frozen orange juice fragrance, and meaty texture.
  • They have a smooth, round, rubbery cap with violet to purple-pink coloration.
  • Useful as the sauce, soup, pickles, stew, pasta, rice, and omelet.
  • It contains a high amount of energy, proteins, and carbohydrates.
  • Rich in PUFA (linoleic acid), phenol, and flavonoids.
  • Fight against infections and protect the body from diseases.
  • Manage diabetes and prevent the growth of cancer cells.

Introduction

Lepista nuda or Clitocybe nuda is belonging to the family Tricholomataceae and has economic and medical value.

It is a popular, edible wild mushroom with a special aroma. This mushroom is having a delicate flavor, and texture with violet to purple-pink coloration. The cap of this mushroom is round, smooth, and rubbery.

As the mushroom gets old the color becomes grey/brownish and the shape changes to nearly flat. It can grow up to 5 -10 cm tall near the tree and gardens among fallen leaves. Are available in the autumn and winter months.

This mushroom contains vitamin B1, triterpenoids, sterols, and organohalogens. Traditionally, they have been used to treat thiamine deficiency (beriberi), soreness, and wounds.

Lepista nuda has some other medicinal properties like anti-tumor, anti-oxidant, antimicrobial, anti-diabetic, and anti-hyperlipidemic (1).

Common name

Blewit or blue-Leg mushroom, Wood blewits, Mavi cincile ormor mantar in Turkey

Geographical distribution

It is found in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and many other parts of the world including France, Holland, Britain, and Taiwan. 

Nutritional value

Lepista nuda is one of the nutritional mushrooms and is considered to be delicious by humans. It contains a high amount of energy (367 kcal/100 g dry weight), moisture (91 g/100 g fresh weight), proteins (12 g/100 g dry weight), and carbohydrates (77 g/100 g dw) (2). It also contains other compounds like sterols, triterpenoids, ceramides, PUFA (linoleic acid), and phenolic compounds (3).

Health benefits of Lepista nuda 

1. Anticancer properties

It contains phenolics (especially protocatechuic acid), tocopherols, ascorbic acid, carotenoids, and terpenes that show biological activity against cancer cells. These compounds prevent the growth of cancer cells and may be useful as part of cancer vaccine immunotherapy (4).

2. Antimicrobial properties

Contains phytochemical compounds that inhibit the growth of some microorganisms that cause infectious diseases.

This mushroom fights against Micrococcus flavus, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus (5).

3. Antioxidant properties

Phenol and flavonoids found in Lepista nuda remove the harmful radicals from the body. Thus, this mushroom can protect the body from various diseases (6).

4. Manage diabetes

Lepista nuda is rich in phenolic compounds and anthocyanin which is the metabolic regulator and insulin sensitizer. These compounds lower glucose levels thus protecting against diabetes (7).

5. Lower cholesterol level

Lepista nuda has zero cholesterol content and a decrease in liver triglyceride synthesis, whereas an increase in fatty acid oxidation. Thus intake of this mushroom lowers the triglycerides level in the blood and is good for health (8).

Side effects of Lepista nuda 

A research study suggested that Lepista nuda is safe at a dose of 3 g/kg body weight in rats. Thus daily intake of this mushroom at 30 mg/kg body weight/day is acceptable in humans (9).

However, besides its delicious taste, raw ingestion of this mushroom may upset the stomach in some people. Thus, Lepista nuda must be cooked before consumption (10).

How to cook recipes

Lepista nuda has a mild pleasant taste, floral or like frozen orange juice fragrance when young and meaty texture.

They can be cooked whole and added to the sauce, soup, pickle, stew, pasta, rice, and omelet.

It can also use with pale meat such as veal, pork, or chicken. This mushroom exudes juices into the pan and thus must be dried by simply heating till the liquid is evaporated.