Nutritional and nutraceutical characterization of three wild edible mushrooms from Haryana, India

Mushrooms are included in the category of functional foods due to their culinary and pharmaceutical properties. In the present investigation, three wild edible mushrooms including Calocybe gambosa (Fr.) Donk (PUN 3538), Lentinus squarrosulus Mont. (PUN 3539), and Podaxis pistillaris (L.) Fr. (PUN 7151) collected from Haryana (India) were analyzed for their proximate composition and bioactive compounds. Among these, L. squarrosulus was found having highest dietary fiber (38.38±1.96g/100g) and ash content (11.4±0.55g/100g) on dry weight basis in comparison to the other two species evaluated. C. gambosa revealed the presence of maximum protein content (20.22±0.07/100g dw). Out of the evaluated species, P. pistillaris was evaluated for the presence of maximum levels of fat content (1.97±0.16 /100g dw), total carbohydrates (77.79±0.39g/100g dw) and energy value (387.05±0.28 kCal/100g dw). Amongst the nutraceutical components, C. gambosa has been evaluated to possess maximum quantity of phenols (1.53±0.06mg/g dw), flavonoids (1.27±0.04 mg/g dw) and alkaloids (1.85±0.07 mg/100g dw). Other Nutraceutical components including steroids (1.82±0.03mg/100g dw), β-carotene (4.68±0.02μg/g dw) and lycopene (1.23±0.01μg/g dw) were present in maximum proportion in L. squarrosulus while P. pistillaris contained least quantity of all these bioactive compounds amongst the three-evaluated species.