Antioxidant potentiality of Pleurotus ostreatus (MTCC142) cultivated on different agro wastes

Pleurotus ostreatus (MTCC142) was cultivated on three different agro wastes viz: Wheat straw, Soybean straw and Chick pea straw. Total antioxidant, reducing power and total phenolic content effect of the extracts was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method and Folin-Ciocalteu method. The aqueous extract of P.ostreatus cultivated on soybean straw exhibited good antioxidant activity (230 μg equivalent of BHT/g), and also contain high phenolic content (6.25 mg gallic acid/g of dry extract). P. ostreatus cultivated on Wheat straw, had the lowest IC50 value 15.6μg/ml against DPPH radical while P. ostreatus cultivated on chickpea straw had the highest IC50 value 42.9μg/ml. The results provided evidence that the aqueous extracts of P. ostreatus might indeed be potential sources of natural accepted antioxidant and the study revealed that different agro wastes used in cultivating P. ostreatus has a significant effect and positive consequence on its antioxidant properties.