Proximate, Mineral and Anti-Nutrient Composition of Wild Ganoderma lucidum: Implication on Its Utilization in Poultry Production

Some wild Ganoderma lucidum were found growing on logs of dead wood and tree stumps at different location of the Nasarawa State College of Agriculture, Lafia and the Faculty of Agriculture, Lafia Campus, during the wet rainy season. The matured fruiting bodies seen as red open caps were removed for proximate, mineral and anti-nutrient evaluation. The result showed that the fruiting bodies contained appreciable amount of crude protein (16.79%±0.13), carbohydrate (63.27%±0.2) and crude fibre (7.77%±0.34). The crude fat (1.52%±0.09) and fatty acid (1.22%±0.07) were low, making it a valuable nutritional ingredient for utilization in poultry production. The ash content of the mushroom (8.42%±0.13) also showed it contained appreciable amount of nutritionally important minerals, Ca (1.99%±0.04), K (1.11%±0.04), Na (229.88±0.34), Fe (121.37±1.82), Mn (71.06±1.56), Zn (51.49±2.16) and P (30.17±1.29) parts per million (ppm). Magnesium (0.34%±0.01) and copper (7.43±0.13) were least. The anti-nutrients, tannins (18.27%±0.30), phytates (2.43%±0.09), trypsin inhibitors (2.39%±0.11), saponins (1.26%±0.06), oxalates (0.57%±0.06) and cyanide content (0.08%±0.01) were low. The presence of these essential nutrients, which are nutritional requirements of poultry, implies it could be utilised as a feed supplement to improve growth performance and health of poultry. It was therefore concluded that wild Ganoderma lucidum contained appreciable amount of nutrients and could be utilized to improve growth performance and health status of poultry.