Fatty acid composition and dietary fibre constituents of mushrooms of North India

Abstract

Mushrooms are valuable health food grown commercially in many parts of the India. They are one of the oldest single cell protein foods of man having unique flavour and texture. Mushrooms are good source of fibre and rich in unsaturated fatty acid. In the present study two types of mushrooms namely Agaricus bisporus and Pleurotus sajor caju mushrooms were analyzed to determine their fatty acid composition and dietary fibre constituents. The mushrooms were found to be rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (>75%), linoleic acid being the most predominant one in both the mushrooms. Among saturated fatty acids, palmitic acid was the major fatty acid. No significant differences were found in saturated and unsaturated fatty acid contents of the two mushrooms. Both Agaricus bisporus and Pleurotus sajor caju mushrooms had good amount of neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre and hemicellulose. Dietary fibre content of Agaricus bisporus and Pleurotus sajor caju mushrooms were 40.52 and 43.73 per cent, respectively.