Cultivation and identification of blazeispirols of Agaricus campestroides and A. flocculosipes

Abstract

The genus Agaricus contains many edible and medicinal mushrooms; and some of them are used for commercial purposes. Most Agaricus species have been described from temperate geographic areas, but their occurrence in the tropics is still underexplored. The present study describes the successful cultivation of two wild strains from Thailand, A. flocculopsipes and A. campestroides for the first time. The optimal conditions for mycelial growth have been evaluated for both strains, formation of basidiomata on compost could only be observed for A. campestroides. In the present study, mycelial growth and mushroom production conditions were optimized. The temperature range of 25–30 °C with 80–90% humidity was assessed as preferred conditions for primordia and basidiomata formation in a compost rice straw medium with sandy-soil casing layer. Blazeispirols (blazeispirol A and D), a family of triterpenoids that is known to act as selective agonists of Liver X receptor alpha with beneficial effects in vivo in a murine model, were detected in crude extracts from submerged cultures of A. campestroides and A. flocculosipes.