Abstract
Corncob contains nutrients for the growth of mushrooms. Since wood, the original substrate for mushroom production, is becoming difficult to obtain these days, the study aims to evaluate the effect of using corncob as a substrate for Lentinula edodes (shiitake) cultivation, and to provide an economic and eco-friendly approach to transform waste biomass into high quality edible mushrooms. Six formulas containing gradient proportions of corncob were assessed (100 cultivation bed-log per group) together with an oak sawdust control. Chemical profile analysis suggested corncob substitution reduced the substrate’s carbon level and increased nitrogen level. Formulas containing 18–58% corncob obtained higher yield comparing to the sawdust control, indicating a strong boosting effect of corncob. The formula composing of 50% corncob, 28% oak sawdust, 20% wheat bran, and 2% gypsum showed the best performance with the fastest mycelia growth, better log browning, the highest yield (722.08 g/log) and summit biological efficiency (80.23%). The determined carbon/nitrogen in this substrate was 67.21. The size (pileus diameter) of fruit bodies were not much affected by the change in formulas. Addition of corncob had an influence on nutritional composition of mushrooms. The highest polysaccharide content in fruit bodies (4.51 g/100 g) was found when the substrate contains 40% corncob. Corncob is a major agricultural waste in the world. These results revealed an excellent potential of corncob when used as a main substrate ingredient for L. edodes cultivation.
Highlights
Version of Record: A version of this preprint was published at Waste and Biomass Valorization on September 6th, 2021
Before sterilization, substituting corncob for sawdust significantly increased pH of the substrate, reaching a peak at 8.23 when sawdust was totally replaced by corncob, no significant difference was observed in pH after sterilization (6.27 ~ 6.67), suggesting an excellent buffer effect of the substrates (Table 2)
We assessed the possibility of using corncob to cultivate L. edodes in this study, monitored the chemical profile and pH of substrates, and investigated the influence of formula on mycelia growth, log browning, mushroom yield, biological efficiency (BE), and agronomic traits and nutritional profile of mushrooms
Summary
Version of Record: A version of this preprint was published at Waste and Biomass Valorization on September 6th, 2021. The study aims to evaluate the effect of using corncob as a substrate for Lentinula edodes cultivation, so as to provide an economic and eco-friendly approach to transform waste biomass into high quality edible mushrooms (whose original substrate - wood is becoming difficult to obtain these days). Effects of formula on mycelia growth, yield, biological efficiency, and agronomic traits and nutritional profile of mushrooms were investigated. Addition of corncob had an influence on nutritional composition of mushrooms, the polysaccharide content in mushrooms peaked (4.51g/100g) when the substrate contains 40% corncob. This study provides an economic and ecofriendly approach to utilize corncob for L.edodes production, by which the corncob biomass can be effectively transformed into high quality edible mushrooms. Using corncob to cultivate Lentinula edodes helps ease the increasing difficulty in obtaining its original substrate wood, whose supply is dwindling
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