Ethnomycological studies of some wild edible and medicinal mushrooms in kamrup district of assam, india

Macrofungi constitute a group of the high value non-wood forest resource worldwide. Mushroom is a general term utilized mostly for the fruiting body of the macrofungi and mainly belongs to higher fungi. It represents only a short reproductive stage in their life cycle. Macrofungi are significant as nourishment source for human beings and animals. A fraction of complete fungal wealth has been subjected to scientific scrutiny and mycologists continue to unveil the unexplored and hidden wealth. The indigenous people of Assam are mostly mycophilous and are frequently used to collect wild edible fungi (WEF) from the forests. In the district of Kamrup of Assam, India, the tribal people mostly use only 6 species of mushrooms as food and only 4 species of mushrooms in medicine. The species that were used as food included Agaricus bisporus, Cantharellus cibarius, Cantharellus lateritius, Lentinus squarosulus, Termitomyces heimii and Termitomyces microcarpus. The macrofungi which local people of Kamrup used in medicine were Auricularia judae, Ganoderma lucidum, Lentinula edodes and Bovista plumbea.