Abstract
Coffee husk is a residue generated in large amount in Brazil and which contains caffeine and tannins, among other compounds, resulting in disposal problem. Recently, studies have shown that coffee husk can be used as substrate for mushroom cultivation. However, the main problem seems to be a low mushroom yield. Moreover, sterilization was always performed, making difficult the mushroom cultivation dissemination in deprived regions. Here, the viability of alternative methods was evaluated using lime immersion and boiling, to produce Pleurotus ostreatus mushrooms in coffee husk of two varieties. These alternative methods produce mushrooms with higher or similar yield as compared to sterilization method. Therefore, immersion of the substrate in water for removing toxic compounds, careful control of moisture in the substrate, and selection of strains adapted to growth in coffee husk seems to be efficient approaches to improve mushroom yield. Key words: Coffee husk, Pleurotus ostreatus, cultivation, sterilization, mushroom yield.
Highlights
Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world (FAOSTAT, 2010)
Coffee husk is a residue generated in large amount in Brazil and which contains caffeine and tannins, among other compounds, resulting in disposal problem
Studies have shown that coffee husk can be used as substrate for mushroom cultivation
Summary
Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world (FAOSTAT, 2010). The industrial processing of coffee cherries generated a residue called coffee husk. The coffee husk is rich in nutrients (Rodriguez and Gordillo, 2011) It contains compounds such as caffeine, tannins and polyphenols (Fan et al, 2000a, 2003), which can be toxic and limit the uses of this residue (Pandey et al, 2000). Aiming to give a destination to this agro-industrial residue, studies have been made to use coffee husk as substrate for mushroom production (Fan et al, 2003; Dias et al, 2003; da Silva et al, 2012). The mushrooms can be enriched with minerals like selenium, copper and zinc,that increase their antioxidant activity (Carrasco-Gonzalez et al, 2017; Poniedziałek et al, 2017)
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