We are all familiar with fungi as food ingredients. The fruit bodies of different fungi can be added to salads, soups, sauces or pizza. Fungi are relatively healthy and nutritious food. However, fungi can also be used in other ways.

Some fungi can be used as the source of dyes for clothes and fabrics. For example, the inedible blood red webcap, sopimattomat veriseitikki, surprise webcap and poison pax are excellent dye mushrooms.


The blood red webcap can be used to dye clothes and fabrics.

Yeasts are unicellular fungi. Humans have used yeast fungi to bake bread, brew beer and produce wine for thousands of years. 

Many medicinal substances also come from fungi. The most famous fungus-based medicinal substance is probably penicillin, which has been historically important in fighting bacterial infections. 

Fungi help our lives in ways that we rarely think about. For example, you may own jeans that have been bleached with fungal enzymes. These enzymes are also used to produce glucose syrup found in many sodas. Fungi also contain aromatic substances that can be separated for use in food production.