Production of mycelial biomass from Auricularia auricula-judae (Bull.) Quél. under submerged culture conditions

Abstract

Auricularia auricula-judae is an edible and medicinal fungus that responds to the current demands for diversification of nutritional and functional sources, where fruit bodies are commercialized on a regular basis. This mushroom and its functional products are mainly extracted from the fruiting body that grows in solid culture; in which various technical problems arise to obtain both biomass in quantity and quality and homogeneity of products. In this article, the biomass of Auricularia auricula-judae was obtained by means of the liquid culture method in three different carbon sources (wheat bran, barley flour and rice flour) and two different concentrations (30 g/L and 40 g/L), obtaining a pellet formation after 14 days of culture. The biomass was quantified by the dry weight method, filtering the content of each Erlenmeyer flask, then was taken to a drying oven until constant weight. The highest production of biomass was obtained with wheat bran, with a dry weight of 12,8 g/L, which indicates that this method is optimal to obtain biomass in a short time, under simple conditions and low condition costs. Finally, with this biomass obtained, it is planned in the future to implement processes for fermentation in liquid state using agro-industrial residues and supplementing them with these complex carbon sources, which could lead to a considerable increase in biomass production, enzymes of interest and production of active metabolites of interest.