6 1 0 2 1st Internaonal Mediterranean Science and Engineering Congress (IMSEC 2016) Çukurova University, Congress Center, October 26-28, 2016, Adana / TURKEY Pages: 3508-3512, Paper ID:931 1st Internaonal Mediterranean Science and Engineering Congress (IMSEC 2016), October 26-28, 2016, Adana/Turkey 3508 Edible wild mushrooms sold in Giresun local markets Aysun Pekşen 1 , Sanem Bulam 2 , N. Şule Üstün 3 1 Ondokuz Mayıs University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture, Samsun, Turkey; aysunp@omu.edu.tr 2 Giresun University, Şebinkarahisar Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Program of Food Technology, Şebinkarahisar, Giresun, Turkey; sanem.bulam@giresun.edu.tr 3 Ondokuz Mayıs University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Food Engineering, Samsun, Turkey; sustun@omu.edu.tr Abstract Giresun province, located in the east part of the Black Sea Region, is quite rich in terms of macrofungi because of its climate and flora. Edible wild mushrooms have been collected and consumed by the people living in Giresun for hundreds of years. Numerous types of edible wild mushrooms are also sold in the local markets for their taste, flavor and nutritional content. e aim of this study was to determine the edible wild mushrooms sold in Giresun local markets and their consumption patterns. In this study, mushroom samples were collected from the local markets of Giresun province during the 2014-2015 years. e habitats, macroscopic and microscopic properties of the mushroom samples were determined. e mushroom species were identified according to the literature. Morchella spp., Agaricus campestris, Boletus aestivalis, B. edulis, Cantharellus cibarius, Hydnum repandum, Lactarius spp., Laetiporus sulphureus, Lepista saeva, Macrolepiota procera, Marasmius oreades, Pleurotus eryngii, P. ostreatus, Ramaria spp., Sarcodon imbricatus and Sparassis crispa were commonly sold mushrooms in the local markets of Giresun. ese species are evaluated for food in different recipes as fresh, frozen or pickled. e species such as Morchella spp., B. edulis, Cantharellus cibarius and Hydnum repandum are exported as fresh, frozen and dried. As a result, edible wild mushrooms have high nutritive value and are important as a food and income source for local people in Giresun province. Keywords: Giresun, edible wild mushrooms, consumption patterns, local markets 1. INTRODUCTION Mushrooms have been consumed as food for hundreds of years. Mushrooms have a high nutritional value due to protein, mineral matters and vitamin contents. Mushrooms are known as the best source of vegetable protein with essential amino acids [1]. Besides nutritional properties, nutraceutical proper- ties of mushrooms are also of great importance. With their unique flavor, mushrooms also lend a special flavor to various foods they participated [2]. In 2014, annual cultivated mushroom consumption per capita in Turkey was 579.2 grams [3]. Although the cultivated mushroom consumption is low, natural wild mushroom consumption is widespread especially in the Black Sea Region of our country [2, 4, 5, 6]. Giresun is located in the Eastern Black Sea Region and 34% of the province is covered with the forests [7]. As a result of warm and wet climate and rich vegetation, Giresun has a rich biodiversity in terms of macrofungi microbiota. Among these macrofungi, many species of edible mushrooms are also collected and sold in the public markets by the people of Giresun. Some researches were performed by Öder [8, 9] and Sesli [10] in order to determine the species of poisonous and edible mushrooms grown in Giresun and surroundings. However, there is no thorough research on the identification of mushrooms sold in public markets with local names and mushroom use and consumption patterns of indigenous people. The aim of this study is to perform the scientific identification on mushroom species collected and sold in local markets by villagers and mushroom vendors and reveal their usage forms.