Fatty Acid Profile of Wild and Cultivated Edible Mushrooms Collected from Ethiopia

Six wild (A. campestris, L. sulphureus, T. clypeatus, T. microcarpus, T. letestui and Termitomyces spps) and three cultivated (P. ostreatus, L. edodes, A. bisporus) edible mushrooms collected from Ethiopia were analyzed for their fatty acid profile. Fatty acids were extracted by one step lipid extraction and methylation procedure followed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. The dominant fatty acid in all mushroom species was linoleic acid (C18:2) ranging from 1044.5-2759.4 mg/100 g. The next three dominant fatty acid were oleic acid (C18:1n9c), palmitic acid (C16:0) and stearic acid (C18:0) ranging from 43.8-1558.8, 189.9-1081.5 and 13.5-374.1 mg/100 g respectively. Beside the four major fatty acids already described, more than 20 fatty acids were identified and quantified. The proportions of unsaturated fatty acids were of higher concentration than those of saturated fatty acids for all mushrooms. Moreover, the ratio of linoleic/oleic acid in all species are significantly different (P<0.05) and were greater than one.