Background:

Lycoperdon perlatum is a wild edible mushroom traditionally valued as a nutritious food with therapeutic and medicinal properties with biotechnological potential.

Objectives:

The aim of this study was to evaluate the production of β-glucans from mycelium grown in vitro and from sporomes of wild Lycoperdom perlatum.

Methods:

Mycelium was cultured in vitro by liquid state fermentation (LSF), while wild sporomes were collected from a forest of Pinus and Abies. The biomass of both fungal materials was dried and processed to extract the β-glucans by successive extraction in aqueous and alkaline solution. The extracts were subsequently purified and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

Results and conclusions:

The sporomes presented a higher concentration of β-glucans, with 13.80 g of total β-glucans per 100 g of dry biomass, of which, 2.36 g correspond to an aqueous fraction and 11.58 g correspond to an alkaline fraction. The mycelium presented 11.50 g of β-glucans per 100 g of dry biomass, of which, 1.40 g correspond to an aqueous fraction, and 10.11 g correspond to an alkaline fraction. The FTIR spectrum of the four precipitates show the characteristic bands of a β-glucan.