Isolation of metabolites from the wild mushrooms Helvella lacunosa and Helvella crispa

Wild mushrooms are good sources of a wide range of metabolites that can exhibit diverse nutritional and medicinal properties. Very few species of wild mushrooms have been extensively investigated for their activities. The present work, in a continuation of our research for the isolation of new metabolites from wild mushrooms, focuses on the investigation of two species of Ascomycetes Helvella lacunosa and Helvella crispa, which belong to the family Helvellaceae. Both species are considered edible, although they are regarded as suspicious for gastrointestinal symptoms to some people.

The species H. lacunosa and H. crispa were collected in Mt. Parnitha from Abies cephalonica. In the lab the specimens were lyophilized and finally extracted. H. lacunosa was first extracted with a Supercritical Fluid Extractor using CO₂ and then with Accelerated Solvent Extractor (ASE) using EtOH. H. crispa was extracted directly with Accelerated Solvent Extractor using EtOH as a solvent.

Subsequently, the fractionation and investigation of H. lacunosa supercritical extract lead to the isolation and identification of hexadecanoic acid, octadecanoic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid, hexadecanoic acid ethyl ester, oleic acid methyl ester, oleic acid ethyl ester, linoleic acid ethyl ester, crinosterol and squalene. The extract from the ASE lead to the isolation of hexadecanoic acid, octadecanoic, eicosanoic, docosanoic and tetracosanoid acid. In addition, crinosterol and mannitol were found to be the major compound of this extract. The investigation of the EtOH extract of Helvella crispa lead to the isolation of crinosterol, oleic acid butyl ester, octadecanoic acid butyl ester and mannitol.

Those findings indicate that both species H. lacunosa and H. crispa are good sources of some essential fatty acids and may support to their nutritional value.