Productivity, biological efficiency and bromatological composition of Pleurotus sajor-caju growth on different substrates in Brazil

Abstract

Pleurotus is one of the most important edible mushroom genera in Brazil, specifically P. ostreatus, P. sajor-caju and P. ostreatusroseus. With the increasing culinary use of mushrooms, this research cultivated P. sajor-caju on different substrates and evaluated the fresh mass, productivity, biological efficiency and bromatological composition. Cultivation using elephant grass produced 232.40 g of fresh mass (23.24 g productivity); however, better biological efficiency (106.60%) was achieved using rice straw. Higher humidity levels (91.41%) and ether extract (5.65%) were observed in mushrooms produced with elephant grass plus sugarcane bagasse. The bromatological analysis indicated 42.13% crude protein and 7.97% ash in the mushrooms produced with sugarcane bagasse. Mushrooms from the mixed elephant grass and rice straw had 58.66% carbohydrates and only 8.69% crude fiber, while the rice straw experiments had 31.33% crude fiber. These results indicated that using elephant grass resulted in higher values of fresh mass, productivity and biological efficiency for the cultivation of P. sajor-caju than the other treatments. The study also indicated the benefits of the use of agricultural wastes for the cultivation of mushrooms, as well as the variability of the nutritional and physicochemical composition thereof for different substrates.