Journal of Bioscience and Biotechnology Discovery Volume 4(6), pages 133-136, December 2019 Article Number: 046D91952 ISSN: 2536-7064 https://doi.org/10.31248/JBBD2018.072 https://integrityresjournals.org/journal/JBBD Full Length Research Cultivation of oyster mushroom on different agricultural wastes Shahjahan Baig, Mushtaq Saleem and Sadia Zia* Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Central Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan. *Corresponding author. Email: sadia.zia@ucp.edu.pk; Tel: +923039171085. Copyright © 2019 Baig et al. This article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Received 8th June, 2018; Accepted 28th June, 2018 ABSTRACT: Oyster mushrooms are the best known due to their nutritional value and medicinal properties. In this study, Pleurotus ostreatus was cultivated on pretreated lignocellulosic agricultural wastes comprising of corn cobs, rice straw and ground nut shells. Agricultural waste conserves finite phosphate resources and embedded energy from industrial nitrogen fixation. It is also a way of sustainable food production. A dense white mass of mushroom mycelium colonized the substrate within 17 days of incubation at 30 0 C in dark phase. Subsequently, massive fructification appeared within 50 to 60 days in light phase after spawning. The study was further extended to repeated-harvest and maximum average yield of mushroom obtained was 197.8 g/Kg of dried corn cobs, followed by rice straw and ground nut shells. The yield was drastically reduced after third harvest and not noteworthy, which might be attributed to the exhaustion of nutritional constituents of substrates available for growing mushroom. Keywords: Biological efficiency, proximate composition, substrates, yield. INTRODUCTION The macro-fungi of basidiomycetes on earth estimated at 140,000, yet only 10% (approximately 40,000 normal species) are known till date. (Chang and Miles, 1981; Jong and Birmingham, 1993; Wasser and Weis, 1999; Van Griensven, 2001; Chang, 2001). A few of them have been studied in detail from the stand point of their commercial potential. Amongst, less than 15 species of mushrooms are accepted widely as food and even fewer have attained the status of items of commerce. According to mycological differentiation; the mushrooms are categorized as poisonous and non-poisonous or edible mushrooms. However, a very few are poisonous and a large number are consumed as edible source of nutrition. Edible oyster mushrooms have received considerable attention for their nutritional value, medicinal properties and biodegradation abilities due to various components and secondary metabolite identified from their mycelium and fruiting-bodies (Mandeel et al, 2005; Kumari and Atri 2014; Kües and Liu, 2000). The fruiting-bodies of mushrooms are complex structures, both morphologically and physiologically with undoubted variation in chemical composition corresponding to constituents of substrates (Kües and Liu, 2000). The oyster mushrooms include Pleurotus spp. have been recognized as very good source of vitamins, particularly, thiamine and riboflavin. The proteinous matter mainly constitutes lysine and leucine, which is essentially required in human diet, which seriously lacking in most of the staple cereal foods. In addition, these oyster mush- rooms contain sufficient amount of calcium, phosphorus and iron in association with certain antioxidants (Gunde- Cimerman, 1999; Philippoussis, 2009). As far as nutritional and therapeutic importance, the present day mushroom industry is based on two main components: the application of traditional (although modernized techniques) methods for the production of fruiting-bodies (mushroom themselves) and the application of modern biotechnological techniques to produce mushroom derivatives; such as nutraceutical and dietary supplements (Chandra et al., 2013; Obodai et al., 2003; Adebayo and Martinez-Carrera, 2015; Kannahi and Sangeetha, 2015; Chang and Miles, 1989; Chang, 2006). Moreover, mushroom cultivation technology is also