For the first time, a number of substances from the mushroom family Ganoderma have been produced via total synthesis. The researchers discovered that the health effects cannot be directly linked to the synthesised substances, according to the European Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Ganoderma mushrooms have been used in traditional East Asian medicine for more than 2,000 years for a variety of ailments ranging from diabetes to insomnia and cancer. Over the years, more than 900 compounds have been isolated from the mushrooms, which fall into three main categories: polysaccharides, triterpenoids and, more recently, meroterpenoids. The groups of Adri Minnaard and Sahar El Aidy at the University of Groningen wanted to study the interactions between the latter group and the microbiome, but isolation from mushrooms produces too few of the compounds to test. So PhD student Daan Bunt took on the synthesis.