The present study was conducted to evaluate the hypocholesterolemic effect of Pleurotus sajor-caju mushroom in hypercholesterolemic rats. Rats were fed hypercholesterolemic semi-synthetic diet containing 1 % cholesterol and supplemented with 5 and 10 % dried powder of the mushroom. The feeding experiment was carried out for a period of 7 weeks. The results showed that serum total cholesterol co...

The basidiomycete Pleurotus sajor-caju mineralizes ring-14C-labelled lignin (dehydrogenative polymer) when grown in mycological broth. Under these conditions, two veratryl alcohol oxidase (VAO) enzymes were found in the culture medium. They oxidized a number of aromatic alcohols to aldehydes and reduced O2 to H2O2. The enzymes were purified by ion-exchange and gel-permeation chromatography. The...

Two varieties of Pleurotus sajor-caju, obtained from the wild and cultivated (on shredded corncobs) were separated into cap and stalk and analysed on dry weight basis. The proximate composition (g/100 g) showed that both varieties were highly concentrated in crude protein. The cultivated cap (Cc) was found to accumulate higher concentration of crude protein (26.34%) and ash (10.37%) than the wi...

Article history: Received on: 28/01/2014 Revised on: 17/02/2014 Accepted on: 09/03/2014 Available online: 28/07/2014 Polysaccharides from mushroom Pleurotus sajor-caju (PS1) and Lactuca Sativa (PS2) were isolated and purified (22.40 and 26.80g/100g respectively). Cytotoxic activities of PS1 and PS2 were examined In vitro using colon (HCT 116), liver (HEPG2), cervical (HELA) and breast (MCF7) ca...

Mushroom β-glucan has the ability to affect many cellular functions, including cellular glucose uptake. Although cumulative evidence in literature suggests a connection between β-glucan and reduction of blood glucose concentration, a mechanism of how β-glucan affects cellular glucose uptake has not been demonstrated. In this study, we analyzed the effect of β-glucan containing polysaccharide ex...