Acylfulvene is a cytotoxin that is related to illudin. Illudin itself can be extracted from the jack o'lantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius). Acylfulvene is a compound that can be utilized towards the treatment of a wide assortment of cancers and tumors. It is thought that the acylfulvene compound cripples tumors by DNA alkylation (see DNA methylation), but the exact mechanism of action is not determined.
At present, paclitaxel (Taxol) is the drug of choice to treat certain tumors and cancers, but researchers claim that the efficacy of acylfulvene to fight various tumors is many times that of paclitaxel. The production and thus the use of acylfulvene is hampered by the fact that the extraction of illudin from mushrooms is difficult and also, at the present moment, acylfulvene is difficult to synthesize.