Abstract:
Mushrooms are an excellent source of promising nutritional and pharmaceutical attributes. Several mushrooms from the wild are being investigated for their promising effect on health risk reductions. However, some mushrooms remain to be underutilized due to improper cultivation techniques, ineffective nutrient sources and extrinsic factors. Thus, the mycelial biomass and exopolysaccharide (EPS) production of Agrocybe cylindracea and Pleurotus djamor in submerged fermentation conditions was determined using selected commonly discarded fruits at varying concentrations. Saba banana puree (30%) at pH 7 yielded the highest mycelial biomass of both mushrooms. Supplementation of 5 ppm 6-BAP on saba banana puree (30%) at pH 7 for both mushrooms increased the mycelial biomass yield at 58% for A. cylindracea and 61% for P. djamor. In varying agitation conditions, A. cylindracea greatly increased its mycelial biomass yield and EPS production at 100 rpm and P. djamor at 150 rpm. The fermentation period highly influenced the mycelial biomass and EPS production of both mushrooms. The highest mycelial biomass yield was obtained by a fermentation period of 20 days for A. cylindracea and 15 days for P. djamor, but the highest EPS yield can be precipitated at a fermentation period of 10 days for A. cylindracea and 15 days for P. djamor. Overall, maximum mycelial biomass and EPS yield were achieved on optimum submerged fermentation conditions, which can be further used for mass production and bioactivity profiling, which can be utilized in the nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical industries.
