Abstract

The production of cultivated mushrooms and utilization of both cultivated and indigenously grown edible mushrooms have been on the increase in modern times especially due to their nutritional importance. A comparative study on the selected nutrient and mineral contents of two cultivated and two indigenously grown edible mushrooms were carried out at Bunda College of Agriculture in Lilongwe, Malawi between the month of June and December, 2008. Nutrient and mineral content determinations were carried out for two edible indigenous mushrooms namelyCantharellus cibarius and Termitomyces letestui  and two cultivated mushrooms namely Agaricus bisporus and Pleurotus florida. Results on the selected nutrients and minerals namely protein, fat, fibre, calcium, iron and magnesium revealed both significant differences and similiarities. The indigenously grown mushroom species C. cibarius and Termitomyces letestui were found to contain 1.9 and 3.9% for protein, 0.2 and 0.7% for fat and 6.1, 2.0, 9.0 and 5.6, 1.0, 8.6% for calcium, iron and magnesium, respectively on wet basis while the cultivated mushrooms A. bisporus and P. florida were found to contain 3.0 and 2.3% for protein, 0.8 and 0.2% for fat, 2.2 and 0.2%, 8.4 and 2.8%, 0.2 and 8.0% for calcium, iron and magnesium, respectively on wet basis. It can be concluded that significant differences in selected nutrient contents exist between indigenously grown and cultivated mushroom species.

Key words: Agaricus bisporus, Cantharellus cibarius, Pleurotus florida, Termitomyces letestui, nutrient content, wet basis.