Russulaceae FAMILY MUSHROOMS LECTINS: FUNCTION, PURIFICATION, STRUCTURAL FEATURES AND POSSIBILITIES OF PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The purpose of this paper was to analise the results of own author's research and literature date of other authors that concerned lectins of Russulaceae family mushrooms, which, despite their widespread, are still poorly investigated. Most studies merely reported about the determination of hemagglutinating activity and the isolation of pure lectin preparations from fresh fruit bodies of this family mushrooms. This article provides information about lectins physiological role in mushrooms, the list of Russulaceae family spesies tested for hemagglutinating activity, as well as procedure of purification, molecular structure and carbohydrate specificity of isolated lectins. Particulary, most effective methods of lectins purification of the Russulaceae family were highlighted. High lability of the lectins molecules explaned the loss of the activity of these lectins during purification from raw material when the standard procedures were applied, as well as the reason why these lectins were applied from the dried fruit bodies. Finally, practical application of lectins of Russulaceae family mushrooms in medical biological researches were described.