• Question: is there a fungi that is good for us and whats it used for?

    Asked by anon-254717 to Theresa on 29 May 2020.
    • Photo: Theresa Wacker

      Theresa Wacker answered on 29 May 2020:

      Hi Samuel,
      Thank you so much for your question! There is a lot of fungi that are very good for us. First of all, there are fungi that are used in food processing: yeast used for baking or brewing beer is actually a fungus. It is called Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as bakers yeast. The name itself does give you a bit of an idea what it is used for: “cerevisiae” means “of beer”. Penicillin, which is one of the most used antibiotics and one you might have been prescribed from your GP before, is produced by a fungus called Penicillium chrysogenum. Some other fungi that belong to the group Penicillium also are used in cheese making for instance on Camembert or Brie cheeses. There is many more fungi that are used for the production and chemicals. They even produce anti-cancer agents and fungi are used to produce echinocandins, which are actually anti fungal compounds. So you can use fungi to treat fungi! That is mind boggling, isn’t it?
      I hope that gives you a bit of an idea of fungi that are good for us.
      All the best,
      Theresa

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