GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND MORPHOLOGY OF FUNGAL FOAM DERIVED FROM EDIBLE MUSHROOM

Abstract

Production of mushrooms has grown steadily in global market. This have gain interest from researchers to utilize mushroom for better use. Pleurotus florida is one of the well edible mushrooms cultivated in Malaysia. The abundance of mushroom production leads to a new alternative of fungal foam production which is derived from the fungal species and natural resources obtained from agricultural wastes. Since agricultural wastes contribute to environmental problems, hence utilizing them into beneficial products is a great idea. Sawdust was chosen as substrate to grow the mushroom for forming fungal foam. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the growth performance of Pleurotus florida with different spawn loading on sawdust. The produced fungal foam was analyzed on the morphological structure and chemical structure. Sawdust was mixed with 10 % w/w and 20 % w/w   of spawn loading for forming fungal foam. Growth performance was observed where it takes 24 days for 20 % w/w of spawn loading while 10 % w/w spawn loading fully grown into foam after 32 days under room temperature and 20 % w/w of spawn shows higher specific growth rate   at 0.2415 cm/day. Morphological testing on the fungal foam was determined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and 20 % w/w of spawn loading was highly compact compared to 10 % w/w of spawn loading. Result proved that the high growth rate in 20 % w/w of spawn loading can be promoted for future use   since it also has a better morphological structure that will give good mechanical properties.