Pleurotus eryngii is a widely emerging edible fungi and gaining immense popularity in world of mushrooms due to its specific properties like flavour and aroma, its low cost production and requirement of limited land resources. Being newly introduced to Rajasthan, standardization of its cultivation technology and biochemical analysis was done to explore more of the benefits of this mushroom. So, this study was conducted at All India Coordinated Research Project on Medicinal Mushroom Unit in Department of Plant Pathology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur to explore the quantitative parameters like yield and yield attributing characters as well as nutritional and health benefits of Pleurotus eryngii harvested from different substrates and supplements since this. The qualitative parameters including moisture contents, protein contents, carbohydrate contents, crude fiber and phenol contents were studied. Quantitative parameters were studied to find the substrate giving maximum yield and Biological efficiency (BE) in subtropical zones. Paddy straw gave the best results. On the other side, maize straw produced the quickest spawn run completion and initiation of pin heads emergence. Moisture contents of fruit bodies grown over substrates and supplements, ranged from 82 to 90%. Fruit bodies harvested from wheat straw and wheat straw supplemented with 5 per cent wheat bran had maximum (90%) and minimum (82%) moisture contents, respectively. Percentages of total protein on dry weight of mushrooms were found to be the highest (33%) on maize straw and the lowest (15%) being recorded on wheat straw + 5 per cent wheat bran. The highest (67%) and the lowest (44%) total carbohydrate contents were obtained with the wheat straw + 5 per cent wheat bran and sorghum straw, respectively. Crude fiber was found maximum (31%) and minimum (11%) in fruit bodies harvested from wheat straw and wheat straw + 5 per cent wheat bran, respectively. Total phenol contents of Pleurotus eryngii grown on all experimental substrates and supplements were found to be 5.3-7 mg/g of dry weight, which was highest on wheat straw + 5 per cent wheat bran, followed by sorghum straw and wheat straw + 5 per cent rice bran and the lowest found on maize straw

carbohydrate, crude fiber, nutritional, phenol, Pleurotus eryngii, qualitative parameters, substrate

Among the six substrates and supplements tested (Wheat straw, Paddy straw, Maize straw, Sorghum straw, Wheat straw + 5 per cent rice bran, Wheat straw + 5 percent wheat bran), Paddy straw resulted in maximum B.E (88.4%) whereas Maize straw showed the minimum time for completion of spawn run (8 days) and pin head initiation (12.4 days). But, due to the unavailability of Paddy straw in this region, other substrates with good yields are recommended. The quality parameters like moisture, protein, carbohydrate, crude fiber and phenol contents were studied. Moisture contents of fruit bodies ranged from 82-90%. Total protein on dry weight basis and total carbohydrates were in the range of 15-33% and 44-67%, respectively. The crude fiber content was recorded 11-31% in our experiment. Total phenols of P. eryngii over experimental substrates and supplements were observed to be in the range of 5.3-7 mg/g dry weight. In future aspect, Pleurotus eryngii is gaining importance and immense popularity in world of mushrooms in terms of their certain properties, low cost production, requirement of limited land and other resources and environment- friendliness. Many health benefits have been identified to control the malnutrition and human diseases. Presence of bio-active compounds and conversion of wastes into protein rich food are some of the features that have drawn attention from many researchers in recent few years. More work is expected to be done to explore more of the benefits of this mushroom

Akansha Deora, S.S. Sharma, Abhitej Singh Shekhawat and Suresh Kumar (2022). Quantitative and Qualitative Parameters of Kabul Dhingri (Pleurotus eryngii) Mushroom Harvested from Different Substrates and Supplements. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(2): 280-286.