The importance of mushrooms in human life
Mushrooms are an important participant in the cycle of substances in nature, decomposing organic compounds to simple ones - minerals and making the soil fertile. Representatives of this kingdom can interact with plants through symbiosis - mycorrhiza, without which the body cannot absorb water and phosphorus. Everyone needs to know what the significance of mushrooms is in human life.
The importance of mushrooms in human life
Use in cooking
People prefer to use mushrooms in their cooking. Some are delicious and cost a lot of money. The reason for their popularity is simple: they are healthy and nutritious, rich in proteins and carbohydrates (which is why they are often called "forest" or "vegetable meat"), contain vitamins of group B, A, C, D and PP, contribute to the rapid absorption of food. The periodic table suggests that they include potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, sodium, chlorine.
It is not easy to choose the most delicious and healthy from the whole variety, therefore a special classification of 4 groups was created, starting with the richest and ending with the poorest in terms of useful substances and taste of representatives:
- truffles, porcini mushrooms, milk mushrooms, boletus, mushrooms;
- boletus, aspen, boletus, boletus, champignons;
- moss, value, honey agarics, morels, russula, chanterelles;
- podgrukhi, raincoats, oyster mushrooms.
All of these types can be used to prepare both simple and sophisticated dishes using a variety of culinary techniques, but gourmets around the world prefer truffles for their unique taste. This delicacy has long become the hallmark of gourmet restaurants, especially in France. He is sought after in deciduous forests, with the help of specially trained dogs and pigs, which can distinguish a refined scent. But they give preference to dogs - as it turned out, pigs are also gourmets and, if the attendant is overlooked, they can eat a freshly found truffle. Speaking about delicacies, it is worth remembering what is the role of some representatives of molds, which are added to cheeses, which makes them expensive and tasty.
Artificial cultivation
Today, a large number of mushrooms are grown in specially created and equipped premises, the climatic conditions in which are as close as possible to living nature. Champignons and oyster mushrooms are goods that are widespread on store shelves precisely due to artificial cultivation. Scientists, by interfering with the vital processes of fungi, have the opportunity to discover their useful properties, study structural features, study interactions and develop new species in laboratories by selection. The fungi are used in the agricultural field, using them as or as a composition of pesticides.
In the life of an ordinary person, fungal cultures are of great importance: baker's yeast is used to make bakery products, beer and wine yeast is used to obtain alcoholic beverages, and kefir yeast is used to create kefir.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
The industrial use of yeast by humans is based on its ability to convert sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide (it immediately decomposes to H2O and CO2), as well as their effect on grains and dairy products.
Cultural yeast of alcoholic fermentation, for example, for the production of beer, is divided into 2 groups:
- Top-fermented yeast: the optimum fermentation temperature is about + 30 ℃. At the end of the process, they float to the surface and form a foamy head.
- Bottom-fermented yeast: fermentation takes place at a temperature of + 7 ... + 8 ℃ and in they settle to the bottom, forming a dense sediment.
In addition, the groups of these yeasts also differ in the content of enzymes.
Recently, moldy cheeses have become popular: brie and camembert. Previously, the appearance of molds on food was associated with unfitness for consumption, but not with pleasant taste. And everything is decided by chance. This is how it happened with expensive varieties of moldy "blue" cheeses.
Application in medicine
Mushrooms are used in folk medicine
The role of mushrooms in human life is great. Antibiotics are of great importance in modern medicine; they have their pros and cons. Few know that the substance, discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, was developed from the usual mold on a loaf of bread. Later, this genus of molds was called Penicillium, and the medicine from them was penicillin. Today there are a huge number of antibiotics, which was the reason for their division into groups according to the nature of their effect on bacteria:
- bactericidal (kill bacteria);
- bacteriostatic (bacteria remain alive, but lose their ability to reproduce).
Mushrooms are widely used in folk medicine. Fungotherapy is a method of treating diseases based on the use of medicinal mushrooms and preparations from them. This method originates in the Far East and in the distant past of Asian countries, and involves the manufacture of decoctions, tinctures and various extracts with the preservation of all useful properties. The mushrooms contain a large amount of immunomodulatory substances that lead to a speedy recovery.
Dangerous varieties
In the kingdom of Mushrooms, there are also those that pose a serious danger to life. The use of well-known hallucinogenic species of the genus Amanita or Psilocybe leads to the occurrence of inadequate states in which a person is not responsible for his actions and can harm himself and others. Common black mold that grows in damp rooms, such as the bathroom, is also harmful to health. When such a fungus enters the respiratory tract, symptoms of the following diseases appear:
- bronchial asthma;
- meningitis;
- rhinitis;
- pneumonia;
- myocarditis.
Micromycetes also lead to other diseases: dermatosis, diseases of nails, hair, mouth and genitals. Parasitic fungi cause mycoses.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
Parasitic fungi are often the cause of human diseases. So, the achorion mushroom, settling on the scalp, causes a disease called scab. Sometimes it can affect dogs, cats, monkeys, and much less often calves (skin, hair, claws, nails are affected). The trichophyton fungus, which affects hair, nails and skin, is the causative agent of ringworm. The yeast fungus sidium causes a disease of the oral cavity - thrush. The variety of fungal diseases, unfortunately, biologists state, is not decreasing, but on the contrary - increasing.
No one is protected from them, because the sources of their distribution are water, soil, animals and people.
Conclusion
The consumption of many types of mushrooms protects the body by strengthening the immune system, but there are varieties that are significantly harmful to health, for example, parasitic fungi, following their nature, attack people with weakened immune systems.It may not be noticeable to the human eye, but the representatives of the Kingdom of Mushrooms cannot be deceived.
