~ 1097 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2017; 6(4): 1097-1100 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2017; 6(4): 1097-1100 Received: 10-05-2017 Accepted: 11-06-2017 Vidya Jyoti Tirkey Department of Plant Pathology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology, and Sciences, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India Sobita Simon Department of Plant Pathology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology, and Sciences, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India Abhilasha A Lal Department of Plant Pathology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology, and Sciences, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India Correspondence Vidya Jyoti Tirkey Department of Plant Pathology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology, and Sciences, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India Efficacy of different substrates on the growth, yield and nutritional composition of oyster mushroom- Pleurotus florida (Mont.) Singer Vidya Jyoti Tirkey, Sobita Simon and Abhilasha A Lal Abstract The research experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of different substrates on the growth and yield of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus florida) to find out the best alternative substrates that support the growth of oyster mushroom, produces the maximum yield with highest biological efficiency and nutritional contents. A total of seven treatments replicated five times were taken under the complete randomize design. The minimum time taken for mycelium run (15 days) was in T0 Wheat (control) and maximum was observed in T2 Cardboard (21 days). Primordium initiation was observed on 17 th – 26 th days. The maximum time from primordial stage to harvesting stage was recorded in T2 cardboard (35 days). Maximum yield was obtained on T3 Banana leaves (915.23 g) with highest biological efficiency (91 %). Moisture content was found high in T1 Grass (92 %) and showed maximum protein (30.20 %) in T6 Cardboard + Banana leaves and highest carbohydrate in T0 Wheat (4.46 %). The lipid contents were found maximum in T6 Cardboard + Banana leaves (0.88g). Therefore, it can be concluded that Banana leaves substrates individual as well as in combination proved to be best for cultivation of P. florda. Keywords: Oyster mushroom, lignocellulosic substrates, yield, biological efficiency Introduction Oyster mushroom, Pleurotus spp. a macro fungus with a distinctive fruiting body, is a unique biota which assembles its food by secreting degrading enzymes. The genus Pleurotus (oyster mushroom) is an organoleptic fast growing fungus, which decomposes the complex organic materials to generate simpler compounds for its nutrition (Chang and Miles, 1991) [6] . Since centuries, mushrooms have been recognized as important food item and their usage is being increased day by day for their significant role in human health, nutritional and medicinal properties (Mshandete, 2011) [19] . Pleurotus spp. are also rich in medicinal values and so provide a wide variety of medicinal properties and they are effective against certain life threatening diseases. Major medicinal properties attributed to oyster mushrooms include anticancer, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory antiviral activities, immune- modulator effect and blood lipid lowering effects (Lavi et al., 2010) [15] . An attractive feature of oyster mushrooms is that they can utilize a large variety of agricultural waste products and and transform the lignocelluloses biomass in to high quality food, flavor and nutritive value (Bano and Rajarathanam, 1982) [3] . Pleurotus florida belongs to family Pleurotaceae and it is commonly called as Dhingri in India. This mushroom is an edible mushroom having excellent flavor and taste. Its productivity is maximum in a short time providing more protein per unit area than any other area. Pleurotus florida produces metabolites of medicinal and pharmacological interest, such antioxidant antimicrobials, immune stimulants and antitumor activities (Nayana and Janardhanan, 2000; Manpreet et al., 2004; Elmastas, 2007) [20, 17, 7] . Among the numerous species of mushroom, oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus florida) are more advantages in terms of easiness in cultivation, role in biodegradation and bio-remediation, production of extracellular enzymes and neutraceuticals (Rashad et al., 2009) [24] . Mushrooms are still cultivated on a small pockets on a specific substrate and yield potential is not satisfactory. In the present study P. florida was cultivated on wheat straw, grass, cardboard and banana leaves on single and mixed bed consisting of equal amounts of these substrates in polythene bangs. The yields of mushroom, biological efficiency and nutrient composition of the mushrooms were analysed. Materials and methods The experiment was carried out during the months of October-January (2016-2017). The pure culture of Pleurotus florida was procured from TRCSC (Technology, Resource Communication and Service Centre), Jamshedpur, Jharkhand India.