Mushrooms represent a formidable source of bioactive compounds. Some of these may be considered as biological response modifiers; these include compounds with a specific biological function: antibiotics (e.g. plectasin), immune system stimulator (e,g, lentinan), antitumor agents (e.g. krestin, PSK) and hypolipidemic agents (e.g. lovastatin) inter alia. In this study, we focused on the Chinese medicinal mushroom “yun zhi”, Trametes versicolor, traditionally used for (cit.) “replenish essence and qi (vital energy)”. Previous studies indicated the potential activity of extracts from culture filtrate of asexual mycelia of T. versicolor in controlling the growth and secondary metabolism (e.g. mycotoxins) of plant pathogenic fungi. The quest of active principles produced by T. versicolor, allowed us characterising an exo-polysaccharide released in its culture filtrate and naming it Tramesan. Herein we evaluate the biological activity of Tramesan in different organisms: plants, mammals and plant pathogenic fungi. We suggest that the bioactivity of Tramesan relies mostly on its ability to act as pro antioxidant molecule regardless the biological system on which it was applied.

Burkholderia multivorans C1576 is a Gram negative opportunistic pathogen causing serious lung infection in cystic fibrosis patients. Considering that bacteria naturally form biofilms, and exopolysaccharides are recognized as important factors for biofilm architecture set-up, B. multivorans was grown both in biofilm and in non-biofilm mode on two different media in order to compare the exopolysaccharides biosynthesized in these different experimental conditions. The exopolysaccharides produced were purified and their structure was determined resorting mainly to NMR spectroscopy, ESI mass spectrometry and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The experimental data showed that both in biofilm and non-biofilm mode B. multivorans C1576 produced a novel exopolysaccharide having the following structure: [Formula: see text]. About 50% of the 2-linked rhamnose residues are substituted on C-3 with a methyl ether group. The high percentage of deoxysugar Rha units, coupled with OMe substitutions, suggest a possible role for polymer domains with marked hydrophobic characteristics able to create exopolysaccharide junction zones favouring the stability of the biofilm matrix.