Elucidation of Fruit Body and Lovastatin Yield Dynamics of Oyster Mushroom Components Cultivated on Two Lignocellulosic Substrates

Background and Objective: Lovastatin is a lipid-lowering medication that occurs naturally in food such as red yeast, rice, etc. Some of the medicines in the statin class include pitavastatin, fluvastatin, atorvastatin and many more. This study was designed to investigate the lovastatin yield dynamics in white rot fungi cultivated on lignocellulosic substrates. The test mushrooms were Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus Pulmonarius and sclerotia of Pleurotus tuber-regium. Materials and Methods: Andropogon gayanus substrate was weighed into three (3) portions; the first two were 12500 g each, for mature fruit bodies of P. ostreatus and P. pulmonarius while the third (17,500 g) for immature P. ostreatus. Another portion of sawdust (12500 g) was exclusively used for P. pulmonarius and P. tuber-regium. Spawns of the former were inoculated into 300 g sawdust while sclerotial crumbs of the latter were sown in same amount of sawdust, under favorable conditions. Data were analyzed by ANOVA, IBM SPSS version 21 and by Tukey’s HSD at p<0.05. Results: Pleurotus ostreatus cultured on Andropogon gayanus substrate had the highest yield of mature sporophore (11,456.20±0.11g) with bio-efficiency (91.65%), followed by sawdust (10,297.10±0.10) while immature P. ostreatus yielded 7,056.00±0.18 g with BE (40.32±0.12%). Stipe length of P. tuber-regium was significant (5.600±0.17), cap diameter (18.60±0.10) and weight (52.30±0.11). Highest concentration (40.04%) of lovastatin was recorded in mature P. ostreatus sporophores grown on A. gayanus. Conclusion:Andropogon gayanus is strongly recommended for large-scale production of P. ostreatus fruit bodies for commercial production of lovastatin in Nigeria.