Quality assessment and antioxidant study of Pleurotus djamor (Rumph. ex Fr.) Boedijn

Krishnendu Acharya ,Somanjana Khatua ,Saswata Ray

doi:10.7324/japs.2017.70614

Abstract

Pleurotus djamor is an important oyster mushroom that has attracted much attention due to its high nutritional value and diverse therapeutic properties. However, quality standards of this species remain unexplored so far. For this purpose, microscopic features of powder such as physical characters, spore measurement, type of hyphae were examined and described. Physico-chemical parameters like organoleptic features and fluorescent behaviour against 16 reagents were also determined. In addition, an alcoholic extract was prepared using methanol as solvent to characterize the mushroom chemically and biologically. Preliminary mycochemical analysis indicated presence of major bioactive components in the following order of phenol> ascorbic acid> flavonoid> β-carotene> lycopene. To determine phenolic fingerprint of the extract, an HPLC profile was recorded. The chromatogram indicated existence of at least nine phenolic components in the extract. Moreover, antioxidant activity of the macrofungi was also evaluated using in vitro assays like DPPH radical scavenging activity (EC50 value 0.653 mg/ml) and total antioxidant capacity (16.67 µg AAE/mg of extract). In summary, the data as described in this study are significant towards future identification and authentication of genuine mushroom material establishing the pharmacognostic standards. Furthermore, results of antioxidant study indicates that the mature fruiting bodies could be valuable for defending radical induced ailments.

Highlights

Pharmacognosy is considered as one of the oldest modern science and derived from two Greek words namely “pharmakon” and “gnosis”
For quality control studies microscopic features, physico-chemical constants, mycochemical investigation and High performance thin layer chromatography (HPLC) profile were evaluated which would be helpful for establishing the pharmacopeia standards
This study provides information concerning pharmacognosy and bioactivity of P. djamor which may be useful for authentication and development of nutraceuticals respectively

Summary

Introduction

Pharmacognosy is considered as one of the oldest modern science and derived from two Greek words namely “pharmakon” (drug) and “gnosis” (knowledge). Over the course of history, pharmacognosy has expanded considerably beyond traditional techniques such as macroscopic and microscopic identification due to advancement in screening methods. In recent years, it includes study of ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology, phytochemical analysis, isolation of active principles and more recently, the investigation of biological activity (Sarkar 2012; Jones et al, 2006; Orhan et al, 2014). Several commercial synthetic antioxidants are available in market which are widely used in food industry such as butylatedhyroxyanisole (BHA), butylatedhydroxytoluene (BHT), and tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ). Though, these synthetic antioxidants have been restricted for use due to their toxicity and carcinogenicity effects to liver. Mushrooms have been used as therapeutic aid for centuries and recently have gained popularity as they are scientifically proved to be a source of physiological beneficial medicine

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