Journal of Environmental Biology

Biodegradation of agro-industrial wastes by a edible mushroom

Pleurotus tuber-regium (Fr.)

O.O. Kuforiji*¹ and I.O. Fasidi²

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Bells University of Technology, P.M.B. - 1015, Ota, Nigeria

²Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

(Received: July 12, 2007; Revised received: July 28, 2008; Accepted: August 10, 2008)

Abstract: When Pleurotus tuber-regium was cultivated on cotton waste , rice straw, cocoyam peels and sawdusts of Mansonia altissima, Boscia angustifolia and  Khaya ivorensis, the highest crude protein, crude fat and carbohydrate contents in sporophores were  29.4 (M. altissima) , 1.4 (rice straw) and 61.3% (cocoyam peels), respectively. Sporophores produced on rice straw had the greatest energy value and those on B. angustifolia the least i.e. 3147.6 and1709.1 kcal g^-1 substrates, respectively. The greatest degradation of the components of the substrates as a result of the cultivation was 62.4 and 71.5% for cellulose and hemicellulose in cotton wastes and 60.2% for lignin in K. ivorensis , with the greatest reduction in energy value of the substrate being 2667.9 kcal g^-1 substrate in K. ivorensis. There was no correlation between the extent of the degradation of these components and the yield of of sporophores, while the energy recovery of substrate in the mushroom was highest for cocoyam peels and least for sawdust of B. angustifolia, 3.7 and 0.5%, respectively.

Key words: Degradation, Cultivation, Energy value, Sporophores, Agro-wastes

PDF of full length paper is available with author (* bukkolak@yahoo.com)

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