Cultivation and medicinal properties of wild edible Pleurotus ostreatus of Tripura, Northeast India

Abstract

Cultivation of edible mushrooms is one of the most economically usable processes for bioconversion of agro wastes for the production of protein-rich food with various medicinal values. The present investigation was focused to determine the most effective and suitable substrate for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus considering biological efficiency and medicinal activities of fruiting bodies. Different parameters like mycelium running rate, development of fruiting bodies, cropping phase, productivity, biological efficiency and medicinal activities like antibacterial, antioxidant activities of this mushroom were evaluated. The total mycelium running, total primordial formation, complete fruit body formation and duration of cropping were dominant in PS substrate. Fruiting body size was bigger in SD substrate but higher productivity (19.6%) and biological efficiency (65.33%) was observed in PS substrate. Methanolic extracts of cultivated P. ostreatus on PS substrate showed higher antibacterial, free radical scavenging activity (74.26%), chelating effects on ferrous ion (91.11%), total phenol content (0.097\xa0mg GAE/g) and flavonoids content (0.017\xa0mg CE/g). The lowest EC50 values of cultivated P. ostreatus were found in PS substrate which indicated the stronger ability of antioxidant activity. The present study indicates that the types of used substrates affect biological efficiency and medicinal properties.