Indigenous mushrooms for nutrition, medicine, and sustainable food systems: insights from Ethiopia and beyond

Food insecurity, driven by population growth, climate change, land degradation, and nutrient deficiencies, remains a critical global challenge. Indigenous mushrooms, encompassing wild and endemic species conserved by local communities, represent an underutilized resource with significant potential to enhance nutrition, support food security, and promote sustainable food systems. Rich in high-quality proteins, essential amino acids, polysaccharides, vitamins, minerals, and diverse bioactive compounds, these mushrooms provide antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, and gut microbiota–modulating benefits. Protein content of indigenous mushrooms ranged from ≈ 12 to 51% on a dry-weight basis, while total phenolic contents can exceed 278 mg GAE/g in selected species. They also contribute to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning, and the preservation of traditional knowledge and cultural heritage. Despite their ecological, nutritional, and socio-economic value, challenges persist in domestication, low-cost cultivation, postharvest safety, and commercialization. Advances in taxonomic, molecular, ecological, and nutritional research, combined with participatory cultivation strategies using locally available substrates, offer pathways for sustainable utilization. Effective policy frameworks, food safety measures, public awareness, and cross-sector partnerships are essential for integrating indigenous mushrooms into food security programs, supporting rural livelihoods, and developing resilient, health-promoting food systems. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the diversity, nutritional and medicinal properties, cultivation potential, safety, and socio-economic contributions of indigenous mushrooms, highlighting research gaps and opportunities for their sustainable exploitation.