Abstract

Mushrooms have been used for food and medicinal purposes since ancient times. The ? glucans found in mushrooms are currently considered to be responsible for some of the medicinal properties of mushrooms, thereby motivating studies to improve the content of these compounds in fungi and to understand their mechanisms of action. In this study, we tested the effect of nitrogen supplementation on the productivity and nutritional composition of Pleurotus ostreatus mushrooms. P. ostreatus mushrooms were grown in various substrates supplemented with urea or rice bran, and the biological efficiency, mineral composition, protein content and ?-glucan content of the mushrooms were evaluated. The growth of P. ostreatus in substrates with nitrogen supplementation increased the productivity and quality of the mushrooms. However, supplementing mushrooms with rice bran increased the mushrooms’ productivity more than supplementation with urea did. Therefore, the selection of substrates is an important factor in the composition of mushrooms.

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