In recent years, Antrodia cinnamomea has attracted great attention around the world as an extremely precious edible and medicinal mushroom. Ubiquinone derivatives, which are characteristic metabolites of A. cinnamomea, have shown great bioactivities. Some of them have been regarded as promising therapeutic agents and approved into clinical trial by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Although some excellent reviews have been published covering different aspects of A. cinnamomea, this review brings, for the first time, complete information about the structure, bioactivity, chemical synthesis, biosynthesis, and metabolic regulation of ubiquinone derivatives in A. cinnamomea. It not only advances our knowledge on the bioactive metabolites, especially the ubiquinone derivatives, in A. cinnamomea but also provides valuable information for the investigation on other edible and medicinal mushrooms.
Keywords: Antrodia cinnamomea; bioactivity; biosynthesis; chemical synthesis; edible and medicinal mushroom; metabolic regulation; structure; ubiquinone derivatives.