Screening of gastric antiulcer potential of chitosan extracted from white button mushroom wastes in wistar rats

Besides their traditional food usage, mushrooms can be used as a source of many pharmacologically active compounds, especially polysaccharides. Wastes left over in the edible mushroom farms such as Agaricus bisporus (white button mushroom) can also become free and alternative source of chitin-chitosan materials, beside the traditional industrial source shellfish waste materials. Chitosan, a natural polysaccharide is an attractive material for multiple industrial applications most of them in nutritional, pharmacological research, biomedical and cosmetic fields. In the present work, chitosan was isolated from Agaricus bisporus(white button mushroom) wastes, characterized and screened for its antiulcer potential in aspirin induced and pylorus ligation ulcer models in wistar rats. The isolated chitosan at a dose of 200mg/kg showed significant (P<0.01) reduction in gastric volume, total acidity, pH and ulcer index when compared with control.