Uber, Thaís MarquesBackes, EmanueliCorrêa, Rúbia C.G.Corrêa, Vanesa G.Bracht, AdelarPeralta, Rosane M.2024-01-032024-01-032023Uber, Thaís Marques; Backes, Emanueli; Corrêa, Rúbia C.G.; Corrêa, Vanesa Gesser; Bracht, Adelar; Peralta, Rosane M. (2023). Mycosterols. Natural Secondary Metabolites: From Nature, Through Science, to Industry. Cham: Springer Nature. p. 673-686. ISBN 978-3-031-18586-1978-3-031-18586-1978-3-031-18587-8 (eBook)http://hdl.handle.net/10198/29025Sterols are amphipathic lipids that play essential roles in the physiology of eukaryotic organisms in general. The fungal sterols are collectively known as mycosterols and they exert numerous physiological functions. For humans, the interest on this class of compounds relies heavily on the fact that they can promote health benefits. For this reason, fungal extracts rich in sterols of various forms are valuable and promising ingredients. One of the best-known benefits of mycosterols is their inhibitory actions on cholesterol absorption and biosynthesis, but there are several interesting regulatory and modulatory phenomena that mycosterols can affect and that might eventually be of therapeutic interest. Within this domain, the practical application of mycosterols or mycosterol-enriched fungal extracts presents several challenges. The latter include isolation of novel bioactive mycosterols from still underexploited fungi species, the optimization of existing methodologies for production and recovery, extensive study of their applications and, finally, substantial clinical trials for attesting their health benefits and safety.engErgosterolErgosterol derivativesMushroomsMycosterolsbook part10.1007/978-3-031-18587-8_21