TITLE:
Bioactivities of Polyphenols, Polysaccharides, and Oligosaccharides Derived from Two West African Ganoderma Species
AUTHORS:
Erute Magdalene Adongbede, Motunrayo Titi Sholola, Janak Khatiwada, Leonard Lamar Williams
KEYWORDS:
Nutraceutical, Therapeutics, Drug Discovery, Cancer Cells, Antimicrobial Resistance, Ganoderma spp.
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Microbiology,
Vol.15 No.11,
November
28,
2025
ABSTRACT: Ganoderma species are medicinal polypore fungi with documented antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities. Although G. lucidum has been widely studied, African species have received less attention. This study examined two recently identified West African species: Ganoderma enigmaticum M.P.A. and Ganoderma mbrekobenum E. C. Otto. Species verification was performed by sequencing the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA region. Polyphenols, polysaccharides, and oligosaccharides were extracted from lyophilized fruiting bodies and chemically analyzed using Folin-Ciocalteu and Anthrone assays. Antioxidant activity was measured using the DPPH radical scavenging assay, and antibacterial effects against Escherichia coli O157:H7 and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were evaluated via the broth microdilution method. Anticancer effects of extracts were tested on HepG2, HCT116, and MDA-MB-231 cell lines using the XTT assay. G. enigmaticum exhibited higher concentrations of phenolics and carbohydrates; the oligosaccharide from G. mbrekobenum demonstrated greater antioxidant (~90% inhibition) and antibacterial activity (90% - 98% inhibition). Polyphenolic and polysaccharide extracts from both species inhibited cancer cell proliferation, with G. mbrekobenum phenolics showing a low IC50 value (7.70 μg/mL) against HepG2, and polysaccharides from G. enigmaticum recording IC50 values of 7.75 μg/mL and 7.91 μg/mL for MDA-MB-231 and HCT116 cells, respectively. The findings suggest that metabolites derived from tropical Ganoderma species merit additional investigations for their potential use as nutraceuticals and therapeutic agents.