REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION BY BIO-CONVERSION OF ORGANIC WASTES INTO NUTRITIOUS MUSHROOMS.

REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION BY BIO-CONVERSION OF ORGANIC WASTES INTO NUTRITIOUS MUSHROOMS.

Organic solid wastes are a kind of biomass, which are generated annually through the activities of the agricultural,forest and food processing industries.They consist mainly of three components:cellulose,hemicellulose and lignin.The general term for these organic wastes is lignocellulose.It is common knowledge that lignocellulosic wastes are available in abundance both in the rural areas.They have insignificant or less commercial value and certainly no food value, at least in their original form.When carelessly disposed of in the surrounding environment by dumping or burning, these wastes are bound to lead to environmental pollution and consequently health hazards.It should be recognised that the wastes are resources out of place and their proper management and utilization would lead to further economic growth as well.Huge quantities of lignocellulosic and other organic waste residues are generated annually through the activities of agricultural, forest and food processing industries.In 1999, more than3,000 million tons of cereal straws were available in the world and about half of these residues remain unused.All these lignocellulosic waste residues can be used as substrate growing mushrooms;otherwise,they would cause health hazards.

Mushroom enzymes can break down lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose present in these organic materials into simpler molecules, which the mushrooms then use for their growth and metabolism.Lignocellulosic compounds are complex and insoluble.They can be treated by various chemical methods, e.g. with dilute hydrochloric acid and calcium chloride to increase the digestibility and nutritional qualities, and even to form sugars to serve as carbon sources. However, these chemical methods are tedious and costly. Furthermore, treatments to eliminate adverse side effects of the chemicals are also very complex. In contrast, mushroom cultivation techniques have become significantly important in recent years in improving nutritional quality and upgrading the economic value of the solid organic wastes. Mushrooms with other fungi are presently only organisms that can synthesize and excrete the relevant hydrolytic and oxidative enzymes that enable them to degrade complex organic substrates into soluble substances which can then be absorbed by the mushrooms for their nutrients,the ability of the different mushroom species to utilize various substrates will depend on both mushroom-and substrate-associated factors.For example, examination of the lignocellulolytic enzymes profiles of the three important commercially cultivated mushrooms exhibit varying abilities to utilise different lignocellulosics as growth substrate.Lentinula edodes is cultivated on highly lignified substrates such as wood or sawdust, produces two extracellular enzymes(manganese peroxidase and laccase) which have been associated with lignin depolymerisation.Conversely,Volvariella volvacea prefers high cellulose- low lignin-containing substrates such as paddy straw and cotton wastes which have relatively low lignin content, and produces a family of cellulolytic enzymes including at least five end oglucanases,five cellobihydrolases and two ß-glucosidases,but none of the recognised lignin-degrading enzymes.
Pleurotus ostreatus is the most adaptable of the three species and can be grown on a wide variety of agricultural waste materials of differing composition in terms of polysaccharide/lignin ration,because it is able to excrete both kinds of cellulose- and lignin-degrading enzymes.

Mamaland Mushroom Farms (2015).
E-Mail:-Mamalandmushroomproject@gmail.com,
Phone: +255621-080300.
Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin/Google+:-
Mamaland Mushroom Farms.
Blog: Mamalandmushroomproject.blogspot.com
Fight Back Against Malnutrition, Save Lives.