EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT ORGANIC WASTES ON THE GROWTH, YIELD, MARKET QUALITY AND PROTEIN CONTENT OF LENTINUS SQUARROSULUS (MONT.) SINGER, AN EDIBLE NIGERIAN MUSHROOM

📄 Project Abstract

Chang and Miles (1992) defined mushroom as a macrofungus with a distinctive fruiting body, which can be either epigenous (growing on or close to ground) or hypogenous (growing under the ground) and large enough to be visible to the naked eye and to be picked up by hand. Thus, mushrooms need not be only basidiomycetes, or aerial or fleshy, or edible. Mushrooms can be ascomycetes, grow underground, have a non-fleshy texture and need not be edible (Chang, 2008). Mushrooms are widespread in nature and since earliest recorded history; humans have viewed them as a special kind of food, savoring the delicious flavours and acknowledging the nutritional value of this special group of fungi (Chang and Buswell, 1996). Mushrooms have long been appreciated for their flavour and texture, and some for medicinal and tonic attributes. However, recognition that they are nutritionally a very good food and physiologically an important potential source of biologically active compounds of medicinal value is...