Non-Sterile Mushroom Cultivation pdf download

Some are fond of gardening, whilst others are busy collecting antique products. Gardening requires a vast understanding on different types of plants and their particular behavior. Growing varieties of fruits, flowers and vegetables is fairly typical. But there are some persons who adopt a different approach and thinking altogether. They're fond of growing different varieties of mushrooms which are widely consumed throughout the globe.

Individuals are thinking about studying about the procedure of growing mushrooms. However, it could be time-consuming at occasions, so it is important to help keep patient. There may be a number of concerns arising in the minds of learner regarding the methods. Fortunately cultivating mushrooms at houses is simple and doesn't need any particular soil. After medical science has researched extensively on its medicinal worth, there has been a considerable improve in its demand from almost all of the nations.

A number of nations are even exporting them in bulk. The much more commonly consumed are the white button mushrooms and also the Portobello mushrooms.

The mushrooms are usually grown from mycelium, which is the vegetative part of the fungus. It's white in colour but the colour may vary. So as a learner you'll have to discover about cultivating mycelium effectively. The primary obstacle that many people run into is contamination of their mushroom cultures by competitor fungi. There are some cakewalk methods of how you can develop mushrooms which can be discussed as follow.

Why do cultures spoil? Traditionally, the answer has always been: they got contaminated. You may have had air filtration in place, pressure sterilized your substrate, washed down the floors of your grow room with bleach, maybe even added peroxide to the substrate. But once the wrong organisms got in so the story goes , your mushroom mycelium didn't stand a chance.

According to this view, fungi are frail, wispy organisms that will get sick and die if we so much as breathe on them. Other species additionally have a volva cup i. Volvariella volvacea or an annulus ring i. Agarius campestris or with both of them i.

Amanita muscaria. Furthermore, some mushrooms are in the form of pliable cups; others round like golf balls. Some are in the shape of small clubs; some resemble coral; others are yellow or orange jelly-like globs; and some even very much resembles the human ear.

In fact, there is a countless variety of forms. The structure that we call a mushroom is in reality only the fruiting body of the fungus. The vegetative part of the fungus, called the mycelium, comprises a system of branching threads and cord-like strands that branch out through soil, compost, wood log or other lignocellulosic material on which the fungus may be growing.

After a period of growth and under favourable conditions, the established matured mycelium could produce the fruit structure which we call the mushroom. Accordingly mushrooms can be grouped into four categories: 1 those which are fleshy and edible fall into the edible mushroom category, e.

Certainly, this approach of classifying of mushrooms is not absolute and not mutually exclusive. Many kinds of mushrooms are not only edible, but also possess tonic and medicinal qualities.

Mushrooms are devoid of leaves, and of chlorophyll-containing tissues. This renders them incapable of photosynthetic food production. Yet, they grow, and they produce new biomass. The organic materials, on which mushrooms derive their nutrition, are referred to as substrates. Mushrooms are a unique biota which assembles their food by secreting degrading enzymes and decompose the complex food materials present in the biomass where they grow, to generate simpler compounds, which they then absorb, and transform into their own peculiar tissues.

These substrate materials are usually by-products from industry, households and agriculture and are usually considered as wastes. And these wastes, if carelessly disposed of in the surrounding environment by dumping or burning, will lead to environmental pollution and consequently cause health hazards.

Mushrooms lack true roots. How then are they anchored into the substrates where we find them? This is affected by their tightly interwoven thread-like hyphae, which also colonise the substrates, degrade their biochemical components, and siphon away the hydrolysed organic compounds for their own nutrition. Mushrooms, a special group of macro-fungi, are rather more selective than other fungi in that the size of the fruiting body requires the availability of more nutrients than are required for the production of asexual spores by micro-fungi.

In damp places, such as tree-fern ecosystems and tropical rain forests, plentiful moisture leads to abundant mushroom formation. There, mushrooms can be collected at most times of the year. But in drier regions, they occur only after seasonal rains. In these ecosystems there may be a particular flora of mushroom species associated with the seasons of autumn, summer and spring.

Relatively few mushrooms are produced during the cold winter months, although there are perennial fruiting bodies that persist during the winter.

The formation of mushroom fruiting bodies depends very much on the pattern of rains and, in some years, there may be virtually total lack of mushroom fruiting. Mushroom hunters, in addition to carrying along with them the basic equipment and field guide references, which will vary depending on personal requirements and regional conditions, should record such items as date, time, location, smell, substrate host colour, habitat and anything at all unusual about the specimen.

Some important characteristics for identification disappear rapidly as the mushroom matures. These characteristics have to be recorded accurately at the time of collection. There are only a few parasitic mushrooms.

Most of the cultivated gourmet mushrooms are saprophytic fungi. Some of the edible mushrooms are mycorrhizal species, e. Perigold black truffle, Tuber melanosporum, and matsutake mushroom, Tricholoma matsutake. It is difficult to bring these highly celebrated wild gourmet species into cultivation because they are mycorrhizal. These species have a symbiotic relationship with some vegetation, particularly trees, i. However, some mushrooms do not fall neatly within these man-made categories and can share two of these categories.

For example, some Ganoderma spp. Modified triangular model for the ecological classification of mushrooms. Source: Hall et al. On average species were described as new to science each year from to However, the annual total catalogued fungi reached around 1, in , 1, in and averaged 1, each year for to Fungi are regarded as being the second largest group of organisms in the biosphere after the insects.

Thus, the large majority of fungi are still unknown. Of these, about 5, of the species are considered to possess varying degrees of edibility, and more than 2, species from 31 genera are regarded as prime edible mushrooms. But only of them are experimentally grown, 50 economically cultivated, around 30 commercially cultivated, and only about 6 to have reached an industrial scale of production in many countries. Furthermore, about 1, are medicinal ones. Table 1. Mushroom biology is the branch of mycology that deals with mushrooms in many disciplines.

When knowledge increases and areas of specialisation develop within the discipline, it is convenient to indicate that area of specialisation with a self-explanatory name. In biology, there are such specialisations as neurobiology, bacteriology, plant pathology, pomology, molecular biology, virology, fungal physiology, embryology, endocrinology, phycology, and entomology.

These names indicate either a group of organisms e. Although several terms for this important branch of mycology that deals with mushroom have been used, and each of these has its merit, when we get down to the matter of definitions, it seems that there is a place for a new term. The new term is mushroom biology. Mushroom biology is a new discipline concerned with any aspect of the scientific study of mushrooms, such as: taxonomy; physiology; genetics; etc. It consists of three main components: mushroom science; mushroom biotechnology; and mushroom mycorestoration Fig.

As previously outlined, mushroom biology is concerned with any aspect of the scientific study of mushrooms, therefore it will feature in each of the three components of applied mushroom biology. Source: Chang and Buswell Mushroom science: mushroom cultivation and production. Mushroom biotechnology, both as a technology and as the basis for new mushroom products, requires industrial development.

It, like many bioscience industries, operates at the cutting edge of science and involves numerous regulatory issues. The third component of applied mushroom biology has been developed in recent years. Mushroom mycorestoration: the beneficial impacts of mushrooms on the environment. Therefore, the aims of the discipline of applied mushroom biology are to tackle the three basic problems: shortage of food, diminishing quality of human health and pollution of the environment, which human beings still face, and will continue to face, due to the continued increase of the world population.

The 20th century began with a world population of 1. At present, about million people in the world are living in poverty. Applied mushroom biology not only can convert these huge lignocellulosic biomass wastes into human food, but also can produce notable nutriceutical products, which have many health benefits.

Another significant aspect of applied mushroom biology is using the biota in creating a pollution-free and beneficial environment.

The three components of applied mushroom biology are closely associated with three aspects of wellbeing - food, health and pollution. The establishment of principles requires facts, which are arrived at through systematic investigation. The systematic investigation must involve the practical aspects of mushroom cultivation as well as scientific studies. The consistent production of successful mushroom crops necessitates both practical experience and scientific knowledge see Section 3 on mushroom cultivation technology.

Mushroom products have a generalized or tonic effect, which in some cases may act prophylactically by increasing resistance to disease in humans from the balancing of nutrients in the diet and the enhancing of the immune systems. The other three nutritional categories are: the source of energy food— carbohydrates and fats; accessory food factors-- vitamins; and inorganic compounds which are indispensable to good health.

Of course, water, too, is essential. In terms of the amount of crude protein, mushrooms rank below animal meats, but well above most other foods, including milk, which is an animal product Chang and Miles Furthermore, mushroom protein contains all the nine essential amino acids required by man. In addition to their good proteins, mushrooms are a relatively good source of the following individual nutrients: fat, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins including thiamine, riboflavin, ascorbic acid, ergosterine and niacin.

They are low in calories, carbohydrates and calcium. Mushrooms also contain a high proportion of unsaturated fat. In recent years, there has been a trend toward discovering ways of treating mushrooms so as to give them added value. For example, Wermer and Beelman have reported on growing mushrooms enriched in selenium. The desirability of a food product does not necessarily bear any correlation to its nutritional value.

In addition to nutritional value, mushrooms have some unique colour, taste, aroma, and texture characteristics, which attract their consumption by humans. A regular intake may enhance the immune responses of the human body, thereby increasing resistance to disease and, in some cases, cause regression of a disease state. For more detailed coverage of the nutritional and medicinal value and for comprehensive lists of mushrooms used in dietary supplements and in medicines, readers are referred to Section 2.

Environmental contamination can be ameliorated by the application of mushroom mycelial technologies. For example, 1 the use of bioconversion processes to transform the polluting substances into valuable foodstuffs, e.

One of the most intriguing opportunities offered by mushroom mycelia in the area of bioconversion is the exploitation of their ability to degrade pollutants, many of which are highly carcinogenic, released into the environment as a consequence of human activity. The processes of mycorestoration include the selective use of mushrooms for mycofiltration, to filter water; mycoforestry, to enact ecoforestry policy; mycoremediation, to denature toxic wastes; and mycopesticides, to control insect pests.

Those studies then raised questions concerning the nature of the genetic material which culminated in the elucidation of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in Since that time, fundamental investigations on the molecular level have progressed with ever-increasing rapidity. In recent years, however, basidiomycetes have attracted the interest of investigators concerned with problems of differentiation and the control of development because they are eukaryotic organisms and do have some distinct but simple morphological stages which are not present in single cell organisms.

However, mushroom macrofungus genetics is a young discipline in science as compared to biotechnology, which is correlated with the beginning of human civilisation. It was almost exclusively devoted to fundamental research before attracting serious attention during the early s in relation to mushroom production. The overall objective of breeding is to improve the quality of extant strains in the most efficient way possible through the target selection, and controlled crossing, and progeny selection.

The desired result should be defined with reasonable clarity in terms of measurable traits desired, such as yield, quality of flavour, texture, appearance of mushrooms, disease resistance, and general vigour, all within the context of a chosen set of standard conditions which are employed consistently throughout the breeding programme. It was demonstrated that the mycelium arising from single spores was made up of hyphae with simple septa, and that the hyphae of the fruiting bodies and of mycelium giving rise to fruiting bodies bore clamp connections.

Furthermore, when mycelia which had originated from single spores were confronted with various combinations, only certain combinations gave rise to clamped mycelium, while in other combinations the hyphae had simple septa. Sexuality in the Edible Mushrooms Although the process of sexuality is complicated by nutritional and physiological conditions, genetic constitution is the most critical factor determining both the occurrence and the morphology of the fruiting bodies in the edible mushrooms.

Sexuality in fungi consists of three important stages. The first essential stage is plasmogamy which is the fusion of cytoplasm of the two mating individuals.

By plasmogamy the nuclei from two strains are brought together in a common cytoplasm. The second essential stage in sexuality is known as karyogamy or nuclear fusion. The third essential stage is meiosis, the nuclear division in which the chromosome number is reduced from the diploid to the haploid number. The product of meiosis is the formation of a tetrad. Through the process of sexuality, genetic recombination and segregation subsequently occurs. Self-fertilisation homothallism or homomixis is probably the commonest mode of sexual reproduction in the fungi as a whole but in the higher fungi e.

Fruiting structure can be produced by a single, monosporous mycelium. Potentially self-fertile fungi are not always necessarily homozygous and a variety of situation and rather imprecise regulating system can result in heterozygosity. Two types of homothallism are found among self-fertile species: a primary homothallism, in which a homokaryotic mycelium, established from a single meiotic nucleus, has the potentiality to progress through heterokaryosis to the completion of the sexual cycle; and b secondary homothallism, in which a fertile dikaryotic mycelium is established from a basidiospore carrying two meiotic nuclei of different mating types.

Cross mating between homokaryotic mycelia is required to complete the sexual cycle. Two mating systems of heterothallism are commonly found in edible mushrooms: a Bipolar mating system, in which the mating competence is determined by incompatibility factors of a single series, the A factor.

Therefore, only two mating types are produced in equal frequency by a single fruiting body. There are four rather than two mating types produced in equal frequency by a single fruiting body. The spores will start to fall as the cap fully expands, indicating maturity of the mushroom. The spores are so minute that they float in the air and are carried by the wind. Eventually, they fall to the ground, usually with rain. If conditions are favourable optimum temperature and moisture , the spores will germinate to form a mass of mycelium.

This is the start of the vegetative phase of the mushroom. Given an unrestricted amount of nutrients and favourable growing conditions, it is capable of unlimited growth.

The mycelium developing from the germinating spore is the so-called primary mycelium and is usually uninucleate and haploid. This stage is short-lived because mycelia from different spores tend to ramify and fuse to form the secondary mycelium with two compatible nuclei, which continues to grow vegetatively and is able to form fruiting bodies. It is generally recognised that in order to maintain and breed high-yielding strains, the techniques employed in mushroom breeding should now and then be modified and improved in accordance with new findings and progress in the scientific world as a whole, and in microbiology and genetics in particular.

By selection. The common white mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, strains are usually based on selection from multi-spore or single-spore cultures. Tissue culture of selected sporophores has also been used to fix desired variants. Therefore, strain improvement through hybridisation has become a recourse and also necessity. By hybridisation. In addition to the conventional method of matings between two genetically compatible strains through which dikaryon mycelia and fruiting bodies are formed, steps towards a broader spectrum of hybridisation can be achieved in strain improvement of edible mushrooms by the following ways.

A Use of auxotrophs. Auxotrophs can be obtained naturally or induced by mutagenesis. The contrasting auxotrophs can be paired and the products can be screened for hybridity on minimal medium. Certainly, the feasibility of auxotrophs to be used as a tool for hybridisation depends on how easily auxotrophs can be obtained in the strains of the mushroom. Use of resistance markers. Mutants resistant to antimetabolites have been suggested recently as alternatives to auxotrophs for use in mushroom breeding programmes.

The treated spores or hyphal fragments, which can grow on a medium containing an inhibitory concentration of the anti-metabolite, would be considered to possess the marker.

Complementary resistant strains would be grown together and, hybridity can be confirmed by transferring it to a medium containing the two appropriate antimetabolites. Protoplast fusion. One of the most effective barriers to sexual reproduction is the inability of hyphae from two selected strains to fuse.

Several laboratories have reported that protoplasts can be isolated from plant and microbial cells by enzymatic breaking of the cell wall, in the presence of an osmotic stabiliser. Such protoplasts can be effectively induced to fuse in the presence of polyethylene glycol PEG.

After a short period of time protoplasts can regenerate their cell walls and start to propagate as normal cells or hyphae. These cells are heterokaryotic if fusion occurred between cells from genetically different strains. This can serve to increase the frequency of intraspecies crosses in organisms in which natural matings rarely occur. The technique has even a much wider application, and can be used for interspecies and intergeneric crosses in some organisms, which normally cannot be crossed.

Although such an approach has been carried out in several laboratories, until now, no clear and economically applicable results have been reported in edible mushrooms. Due to the nature and the limited time of the training course, the molecular biology of mushrooms was not touched upon in this course, although it has become an important sector of mushroom genetics and breeding.

For further reading, readers are referred to Chang et al It should be emphasised that sexuality in any species has to be clearly understood in order to conduct rational genetic studies as well as breeding programmes. Mushrooms representing three types with respect to life cycle and genetic controls for mating have been considered.

Although it seems likely that selection from existing commercial strains of edible mushrooms may continue to enjoy some improvement, by analogy with other crop species, hybridisation seems to offer the best prospects for real progress, especially with regard to multiple gene transfers mediated by protoplast fusion, during the next few decades.

Finally, the experience of breeding in a variety of organisms has demonstrated the wisdom of preserving the starting strains used in all breeding programmes for the purpose of maintaining a pool of genetically diverse individuals.

Such a practice would allow the possibility of carrying out additional breeding programmes to either improve or restore strains, which are in current use.

Detailed information on mushroom cultivation technology is in Section 3. In each case, however, continuous production of successful crops requires both practical experience and scientific knowledge. Mushroom cultivation is both a science and an art. The science is developed through research; the art is perfected through curiosity and practical experience. Mushroom growth dynamics involve some technological elements, which are in consonance with those exhibited by our common agricultural crop plants.

For example, there is a vegetative growth phase, when the mycelia grow profusely; and a reproductive fruiting growth phase, when the umbrella-like body that we call mushroom develops. In the agricultural plants, e.

It is the same principle in mushroom production. After the vegetative mycelial phase has reached maturity, what the mushroom farmer needs next is the induction of fruiting. This is the time the mycelial growth tips should be retarded by regulating the environmental factors. Light Figure 6. The two major phases of mushroom growth and development - vegetative phase and reproductive phase.

The triggers for the transition from the vegetative phase to the reproductive phase are usually regulated by environmental factors. Although the principles of cultivation are commonly similar for all mushrooms, the practical technologies can be quite different for different species cultivated. The technologies have to be modified and adjusted according to the local climatic conditions, materials available for substrates and varieties of the mushroom used.

This is especially true in developing countries, since growth substrates for mushrooms are basically agricultural and industrial discards that are inedible for humans Chang and Miles Biological bioconversion efficiency, i. This is largely due to lack of know-how, lack of understanding that mushroom can play vital roles towards enhancing human health when used as dietary food supplements, lack of reliable sources of good quality mushroom spawn for supporting the efforts of local mushroom growers, lack of venture capital to support mushroom farming entrepreneurs, and absence of systematic government support towards promoting mushroom farming as a valuable non-traditional new food and cash crop comparable to coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco, etc.

However, it should be noted that Agaricus bisporus is only but one of many edible fungi cultivated globally. Table 3. Note: share of total US mushroom production is in brackets. On the other hand, specialty mushrooms in East Asian countries are far more popular than A. Agaricus accounted for S and Spain, the production of these three mushrooms account for Korea, This means there are more other culinary-medicinal mushrooms being cultivated and marketed in those three Asian countries particularly in Japan.

Table 4. Korea t Taiwan t Agaricus The outlook for many of the known mushroom species is bright. Production of mushrooms worldwide has been steadily increasing, mainly due to contributions from developing countries, such as China, India, Poland, Hungary and Vietnam. There are also increasing experimentally based evidence to support centuries of observations regarding the nutritional and medicinal benefits of mushrooms.

However, harvests of highly prized edible mycorrhizal mushrooms are continuously decreasing. This has triggered research into devising methods for improved cultivation of wild mushroom. It is hoped that there will be even more research into this area, so that larger quantities of wild mushrooms can be massively harvested through artificial cultivation or semi-cultivation methods. These three segments have received international recognition as important inter-related components Fig.

The international movement for edible mushrooms, mainly concerned with mushroom production mushroom themselves , was initiated during the first International Conference on Mushroom Science held in Peterborough, UK, 3rd to 11th May Chairman F. Atkins with P. Bels, E. Lambert and R. Edwards were on the organising committee. The international movement for medicinal mushrooms, mainly concerned with mushroom products mushroom derivatives , was instituted during the first International Conference on Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products held in Hong Kong, August, Chairman S.

Chang with J. Buswell, V. Ooi, K. Liu and S. Chiu were on the organising committee. The object of the WSMBMP is to promote the enhancement and application of knowledge related to the basic and applied aspects of mushroom biology and mushroom products mushroom derivatives possessing medicinal properties from edible, medicinal and wild mushrooms through publications, meetings and other means deemed appropriate.

The sixth one is to be held in September in Bonn, Germany. The international movement for the medicinal segment of the mushroom industry has been given a further boost with the launch of the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms IJMM in by Solomon P. Weis as editors. It has been agreed that there is an IMMC after an interval of two years.

The international movement for wild mushrooms, mainly concerned with edible mycorrhizal mushrooms, was born as a Pre-Congress activity during the 2nd International Conference on Mycorrhizas in Uppsala, Sweden, in It should be noted that edible mycorrhizal mushrooms belong to a special group of wild mushrooms which include other symbiotic mushrooms, e.

These three segments of the mushroom-based industry are not for competition but for complementation. A large number of mushroom species are not only edible and nutritious but also possess tonic and medicinal qualities.

However, some mushrooms are lethally poisonous, and one should eat mushrooms only if one knows their names and their properties with considerable precision. In the past, the mushroom industry concentrated mainly on the production of fresh, canned and dried mushrooms for food. Thus, the industry had only one leg. In the present era, high-pressure work demands are causing greater stress to the human body, and resulting in the weakening of the human immune system.

A variety of proprietary products based on mushroom nutriceuticals and mushroom pharmaceuticals have already been produced and marketed. This trend is expected to increase with wider consumer satisfaction and acceptability.

This is the second leg of the industry. The protein content of the cultivated species ranges from 1. It has been estimated that an average value of 3. This means that the protein content of edible mushrooms in general, is about twice that of onion 1. Therefore, in terms of the amount of crude protein, mushrooms rank below animal meats, but well above most other foods, including milk, which is an animal product Chang and Miles Quantitative data relating to the nutritive value of mushrooms is sparse.

Index rates dietary protein in terms of an essential amino acid pattern based on known adult human dietary requirements. The Amino Acid Score Chemical Score is the amount of the most limiting amino acid in the food protein expressed as a percentage of the same amino acid present in the reference protein.

EAA Indices and Amino Acid Scores of the most nutritive mushrooms highest values rank in potential nutritive value with those of meat and milk, and are significantly higher than those for most legumes and vegetables.

The least nutritive mushrooms rank appreciably lower but are still comparable to some of our common vegetables.

It has also been reported that a total lipid content varying between 0. It should be noted that unsaturated fatty acids are essential and significant in our diet and to our health. By adding sodium selenite to compost over a range of parts per million, they found that the mushrooms increasingly absorbed selenium according to the amount in the compost, so that it is possible to grow mushrooms containing a desired concentration.

Selenium is an essential micronutrient that has generated much recent interest in nutritional and medical research—and, more recently, within the food industry Beelman and Royse, This system is responsible for removing free radicals from the body, thus reducing oxidative damage. There has been a great upsurge in activities related to the use of mushroom products for medicinal purposes in recent years.

The application of modern analytical techniques can be used to establish a scientific basis for the empirical observations that have been made centuries before. Mushroom nutriceuticals may possess both nutritional and medicinal properties. Due to present day high pressured work demands resulting in great stress to the human body and causing a weakening of the human immune system, there are now many new diseases. These have developed as a consequence of lower natural body resistance. There is some evidence that the beneficial treatment of these diseases can be obtained by consumption of mushrooms as a functional food, or through the use of extracted biologically active compounds as a dietary supplement, in order to enhance immune response of the human body, thereby increasing resistance to disease and, in some cases, causing regression of a diseased state.

Differing from most pharmaceuticals, these biologically active compounds extracted from medicinal mushrooms have extraordinarily low toxicity, even at high doses.

Long viewed as tonics, now it has been known that they can profoundly improve the quality of human health. Mushrooms produce several biologically active compounds that are usually associated with the cell wall. Most notably, a group of polysaccharides comprising high molecular weight sugar polymers has been reported to contribute to their immune enhancing and tumour retarding effects.

It should be noted that immune responses are complex reactions involving several types of cells, such as macrophages and lymphocytes. The killing mediated by cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cells, represents an important mechanism in immune defence against tumours, virus-infected cells, parasites and other foreign invaders.

Another group of medicinal compounds found in Ganoderma spp. Some lectins have been shown to have anti-tumour and immunomodulatory activities Wang et al. Other lectins preferentially agglutinate mammalian cells that have been transformed by oncogenic viruses or by chemical carcinogens, as well as spontaneously transformed cells. These and related findings indicate that studies with lectins may lead to a better understanding of cancer.

Moreover, some lectins may be used to inhibit the growth of malignant cells. A novel single-chained ribosome- inactivating protein RIP was recently isolated from fruit bodies of the edible mushroom, V. The mushroom RIP, designated volvarin, exhibited a potent inhibitory action on protein synthesis in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate system.

It also exerted a strong abortifacient effect in mice. Furthermore, the aqueous extracts of Pleurotus sajor-caju Tam et al. Feeding powdered maitake Grifola frondosa mushrooms to spontaneous hypertensive rats resulted in a lowering of the blood pressure Kyoko et al.

It has also been reported that dried powder of another two edible mushrooms, Auricularia auricula and Tremella fuciformis, after being fed to the rats, has demonstrated to be effective in lowering both the serum total cholesterol and the low density lipoprotein LDL cholesterol levels Cheung Since the mushrooms did not affect the concentration of serum high density lipoprotein HDL cholesterol, the reduction of serum total cholesterol by the mushroom diets is believed to be attributable to the fall in LDL cholesterol.

Of the 14,, species of so-called mushrooms in the world, around have known medicinal properties. However, it has been estimated that there are about 1, species of mushrooms with the potential of medicinal properties.

Both these mushrooms and their root-like structure called mycelium produce several medicinal or nutriceutical general immune enhancing compounds, central of which are the polysaccharides high molecular weight strings of sugars , triterpenes, and immunomodulatory proteins.

There are now many studies in Asia, particularly in China and Japan, documenting life span increases of cancer patients undergoing conventional cancer treatment plus mushroom extract consumption or injection Mizuno et al.

At the same time, due to the enhancement of the immune systems, it can help people reduce the possibility of being infected by other diseases. The notable examples include PSK-trade name Krestin of a polysaccharide peptide, and PSP polysaccharide-bound peptide extracted from Coriolus versicolor. A smaller percent of mushroom products are obtained from culture filtrates, e.

However, due to increased quality control and year round production, mycelial products are the wave of the future. The corresponding monetary values were also generated by another famous mushroom, Lentinula edodes. Ninety nine percent of all sales of medicinal mushrooms and their derivatives occurred in Asia and Europe with less than 0. The stock culture which is selected should be acceptable in terms of yield, flavour, texture, fruiting time, etc.

Tissue culture. A large healthy mushroom should be chosen either in the later button or egg stage. The mushroom should be split in half by hand longitudinally and some inside tissue taken from the upper part of the stipe. It should be placed centrally on the surface of the medium with a sterilised needle. The quicker this is done the better. Within two or three days some white, delicate mycelia will be produced from the small piece of the tissue. They grow upwards encircling the inner wall of the test tube.

About ten days later the mycelium will grow rapidly and cover the surface of the agar medium. Then it is ready to transfer to spawn substrate to make spawn. Spore culture. Individual spores properly collected can be transferred singly to a test- tube or petri dish and allowed to develop and germinate into mycelium.

Some single-spore isolates from homothallic mushrooms, e. Volvariella volvacea primary homothallism or Agaricus bisporus secondary homothallism can be used as fruiting culture to make spawn. However if single-spore isolates are from heterothallic mushrooms, e.

Lentinula edodes, Pleurotus sajor-caju and Ganoderma lucidum, then they cannot form fruiting cultures and thus cannot make spawn. They have to be mated with a compatible single-spore isolate. Then they can be used to make spawn. Pure culture from other laboratories. As an alternative to culturing in the laboratory, as outlined, a test tube culture may be obtained from a research laboratory.

The advantage of this is that cultures maintained in reputable culture collections are already tested for their production characteristics and are guaranteed to be pure. Cultures from another source. Cultures also may be grown from spawn obtained from another source. A piece of the spawn is aseptically transferred to agar slants.

However, this is risky because the number of transfers that the spawn culture has undergone is rarely known. If this procedure is followed, it may be advisable to first grow the spawn into fruiting bodies, then make the necessary isolations from the fruiting body. Synthetic media are often expensive and time-consuming in preparation hence they are not commonly used for routine purposes in mushroom laboratories. PDA potato dextrose agar , is the simplest and the most popular medium for growing mycelia of most cultivated mushrooms.

Procedure: Peeled potatoes are washed, weighed, and cut into cubes. They are boiled in a casserole with at least one litre of water until they become soft around 15 minutes. The potatoes are removed and water is added to the broth to make exactly 1 litre. The broth is returned to the casserole, and dextrose and the agar added.

The solution is heated and stirred occasionally until the agar is melted. The hot solution is then poured into clear flat bottles filling to about 2. When using test tubes for the stock cultures, they are filled with at least 10ml of the liquid agar solution. The bottles or test tubes are plugged with cottonwool. When Petri dishes are available and are used to produce mycelial colonies, the solution can be poured into the dishes to form a layer on the bottom. A ready-made MEA malt extract agar powder is also available commercially.

The recommended amount of powder 20gm is mixed with 1 litre of water, then melted and sterilised. One percent peptone or 0. Failure to achieve a satisfactory harvest may often be traced to unsatisfactory spawn used.

Consideration must also be given to the nature of the spawn substrate since this influences rapidity of growth in the spawn medium as well as the rate of mycelial growth and filling of the beds following inoculation. Definitions of spawn and spawning.

In the mushroom industry, spawn is a substrate into which a mushroom mycelium has impregnated and developed, and which will be used as a seed in propagation for mushroom production. In addition the verb, to spawn, is used to mean inoculation of a substrate with mushroom spawn. Along with advances in spawn making, the methods of spawning have also been continuously developed and improved, making it possible for the mushroom mycelium to grow through the compost more quickly.

Spawn Substrates. A number of materials, mostly agricultural wastes, can be used to prepare mushroom spawn. The type of waste available varies from region to region. Some of these wastes are chopped rice straw, sawdust, water hyacinth leaves, used tea leaves, cotton wastes and lotus seed husks.

In most laboratories, cereal grains wheat, rye or sorghum are used as mother spawn, and agricultural wastes as the planting spawn substrates. The mother spawn is used to inoculate the final spawn container in which the planting spawn will be produced. Preparation of mother spawn. Here using wheat grains as an example, they are soaked in water for 2 hours or over night. Dead seeds or those that float on water should be carefully removed. Then the grains are washed again and boiled in water for at least 10 to 15 minutes until they expand but not quite broken.

The grains are drained and allowed to cool. Precipitated chalk 1. These are plugged with cotton wool or covered by double-layered aluminium foil. The bottles are then cooled prior to inoculation. Preparation of planting spawn. Here we shall use rice straw or water hyacinth leaves as an example for Pleurotus sajor-caju planting spawn.

The rice straw or water hyacinth leaves is chopped into pieces about 2 to 3 cm 1 inch long, then soaked in water for 4 - 12 hours. Remarks for spawn making.