Further use of secondary material from agricultural industry in Podravje for cultivation of edible and medicinal funghi

In nature ftingi play a major role, if not the major participant, in the decomposition of ali organic -matter. In region Podravje, especially in the lower part, an agricultural industry is principal branch x>f industry, where, as side products, a various residues of organic matter, which are not ecologicallv dangerous but rather ecologicallv problematic for final disposal, are produced. Such residues are: cakes from grape skins and other fruits, cakes from pressing of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, an enormous quantity of chickens' and pigs' manure, and other material like straw, bran, sawdust and wood residue etc). It is well known that the most important decomposers of inanimate organic matter belong to a group of saprophvtic ftingi, which do not only prosper on dead organic substrate, but numerous species of them also crop receptacles -mushrooms. Majority of them are edible, while some of the also have healing effects. Among fungi, which prosper on various substrates including substrate? - a secondary material - from agricultural industry, in the literature mostly species Pleurotus ostreatus is mentioned. Tvpical representative of fungi that is edible and also with healing effects is species Agaricus Brasiliensis. Further, a wide useful potential of fungi Grifola frondosa is turned to be in medicine, food industry, ecology and in cosmetics. The project will focus primarily on the study of saprophvtic fungi that are grown on substrates of secondary material from agricultural industry and in bioreactors following cultivation on solid substrate, respectively and their further use in food and pharmaceutical means. Further, an adequate classification of ali appropriate solid substrates with respect to their type, quantity and location will be done. Ali selected substrates will be first sterilised in autoclave and then prepared for cultivation by white rot fungi (families: Ganodermas, Grifolas, Tremetes versicolor, Pleurotuses) and brown rot ftingi (families: Agaricus, Lentinus lepideus, Sparassis cispa, Piptoporus betulinus). Cultivation wil! be performed in two ways: (1) on solid substrate in bioreactor and (2) in polyethylene bags filled by above mentioned secondary material from agricultural industry. In order to maximise biologica! efficiency, the conditions for growing mushrooms will be optimised by regulating moisture, temperature, light and ventilation. In addition, quantitative content of immune stimulatory components in successfully grown pharmaceutical mushrooms will be determined.