Ganoderma lucidum, commonly known as ‘Reishi’, has been used traditionally by the Chinese and Japanese in their curative herbal concoctions. A number of products from Ganoderma lucidum are commercially available in forms of extract powders and oral liquids, but the ever-growing demand of herbal bioactive medicines makes quality assurance of the starting material very important. The present study was undertaken to provide quality control standardization of Ganoderma lucidum based on microscopic, physico-chemical and chromatographic features and to partially screen its antioxidant activity. The physico-chemical parameters included loss on drying, ash value, fluorescence analysis which were determined by standard methods. Chromatographic parameters entailed the HPTLC and HPLC profiles of methanolic extract of G. lucidum, the Rf values and the chromatographic peaks were noted as signature parameters for identification of the mushroom. Preliminary mycochemical analysis of the methanol extract indicated presence of flavonoid, phenol, and terpenoids. Quantitatively the major bioactive components in the extract were present in the following order: phenol> flavonoid> β-carotene~ lycopene> ascorbic acid in the methanolic extract. In terms of partially screening the antioxidant potential of the extract, DPPH radical scavenging activity (EC50 value 666 μg) and total antioxidant capacity (18.64 μg AAE/mg of extract) were determined. The distinctive features established in this work are steps in identification, standardization and quality control of the medicinal mushroom
