Chemical composition and non-volatile components of Croatian wild edible mushrooms S. Beluhan a, * , A. Ranogajec b a Department of Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Pierottijeva 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia b Laboratory for Liquid Chromatography, Institute of Public Health Dr. Andrija Stampar, Mirogojska 16, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia article info Article history: Received 6 April 2010 Received in revised form 10 June 2010 Accepted 26 July 2010 Keywords: Wild edible mushrooms Chemical composition Free amino acids 5 0 -Nucleotides Taste components Equivalent umami concentration abstract The chemical composition (dry matter, crude protein, crude fat, total carbohydrates, and ash) and non- volatile components content (soluble sugars, free amino acids, and 5 0 -nucleotides) of 10 popular Croatian wild edible mushroom species (Agaricus campestris, Boletus edulis, Calocybe gambosa, Cantharellus cibarius, Craterellus cornucopioides, Entoloma clypeatum, Flammulina velutipes, Macroleptiota procera, Morchella elata, and Pleurotus ostreatus) were determined. All investigated mushrooms were found to be good sources of proteins and total carbohydrates, with contents varying in the ranges of 27.95–38.89, and 42.62–66.78 g/100 g, respectively. In addition, the fat contents were very low 1.34–6.45 g/100 g. B. edulis (19.87 mg/g) showed the highest concentration of essential amino acids and M. elata (14.25 mg/g) the lowest concentration. Monosodium glutamate-like components and total flavour 5 0 -nucleotides were the highest in C. cornucopioides (45.85 and 13.88 mg/g, respectively), and lowest in F. velutipes (7.63 and 1.05 mg/g, respectively). Equivalent umami concentration values in 10 Croatian wild edible mush- rooms ranged from 73.78 to 1186.45 g MSG/100 g dry weight, and overall, all these mushrooms pos- sessed highly umami taste. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Wild mushrooms are becoming more and more important in our diet for their nutritional (Barros et al., 2007; Manzi, Gambelli, Marconi, Vivanti, & Pizzoferrato, 1999), organoleptic (Maga, 1981) and medicinal (Lee, Jian, & Mau, 2009) characteristics. Numerous species of wild growing mushrooms are widely consumed as a del- icacy in Central and Eastern Europe. In Croatia, mushroom picking is a hobby growing in popularity in which all can enjoy. A large part of people believe that the autumn is the best time for picking mushrooms, but mushrooms are one of the few wild fruits that are available throughout the year. Nine wild edible mushroom species: field mushroom (Agaricus campestris), porcini mushroom (Boletus edulis), golden chantarelle (Chantarella cibarius), black trumpet (Craterellus cornucopioides), winter mushroom (Flamumulina velutipes), hedgehok mushroom (Hydnum repardum), red pine mushroom (Lactarius deliciosus), black morel (Morchella elata), and oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) are very popular and the most harvested wild edible mushrooms in Croatia. During the development of the National Strategy and Action Plan for the Conservation of biological and landscape diversity in Croatia, obtained results showed that the fungi are the least re- searched group of living organisms. It is assumed that in Croatia are about 20,000 living biological species, and to date it has found and recorded (including lichens) only about 3800 mushroom spe- cies (both edible and poisonous) which makes it a little more than 20% of the estimated number of biological species (Biodiversity of Croatia, 2006). Besides all the nutritional properties already available in the lit- erature, there are no reports dealing about the chemical composi- tion and nutritional value of Croatian wild edible mushrooms. Number of studies have been carried out on the chemical compo- sition and nutrition value of European edible mushrooms from dif- ferent countries (Kalac ˇ, 2009), particularly on Finnish (Mattila, Väänänen, Könkö, Aro, & Jalava, 2002), Polish (Jaworska & Bernas ´, 2009), Spanish (Diéz & Alvarez, 2001), Portuguese (Barros, Cruz, Baptista, Estevinho, & Ferreira, 2008a; Barros, Venturini, Baptista, Estevihno, & Ferreira, 2008b; Barros et al., 2007; Heleno, Barros, Sousa, Martins, & Ferreira, 2009), Italian (Manzi, Aguzzi, & Pizzofe- rato, 2001; Manzi, Marconi, Aguzzi, & Pizzoferato, 2004), Macedo- nian (Bauer-Petrovska, 2001), Greek (Ouzouni, Petridis, Koller, & Riganakos, 2009; Ouzouni & Riganakos, 2007), and Turkish (Colak, Faiz, & Sesli, 2009) species. The fungal kingdom possesses certain natural advantages in terms of dietary supremacy over the rest of the vegetarian platter. According to Ghorai et al. (2009) these are: (a) a good protein con- tent (20–30% of dry matter) having all the essential amino acids (especially enriched in lysine) thus capable of substituting meat, 0308-8146/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.07.081 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +385 1 4604 058; fax: +385 1 4836 424. E-mail address: sunbel@pbf.hr (S. Beluhan). Food Chemistry 124 (2011) 1076–1082 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Chemistry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem