The Medicinal Value of Desert Truffles

Abstract

Throughout human history, desert truffles have been used for their nutrition, as functional foods for health promotion and disease prevention, and as treatments for a variety of diseases, particularly eye diseases and skin lesions. Many of the details of this long history have been lost through time, due to the largely oral traditions of the populations that have used desert truffles. Nonetheless, valuable information about the medicinal uses of desert truffles has survived through the traditional medicines that are still practiced in the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahara, the African Kalahari, and the Australian Outback. The use of desert truffles in traditional medicine has led to modern scientific investigation into their bioactive properties. This research has revealed that desert truffles are nutritious and contain multiple antioxidants and has demonstrated that desert truffle extracts have antimicrobial properties that are effective against common pathogens that cause disease in humans. The research reviewed in this chapter suggests that desert truffles may potentially represent an untapped source of novel pharmaceuticals that could treat a wide variety of modern-day ailments.