The mushroom produces extra cellular enzymes which helps for hydrolysing the complex organic substances into simpler forms that can be utilized and assimilated by them or release in surroundings. Generally they utilized the substrates from plant origin i.e. lignocellulosic materials which comprises of three major groups of polymers i.e. cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin[1] which represent the most abundant renewable organic matter on the earth. These substrates are used as a growing medium for oyster mushroom. It includes cereal Wastes [2], millet wastes [3], Oil crop wastes [4], Cotton wastes [5], palm wastes [6,7], pulses wastes [8], vegetable and fruit wastes [9], Beverage [10], sugarcane crop waste [11], wood and wood product [12], grasses [13] and weed [14] and spices plant waste [15]. Bracket fungi belonging to order aphyllophorales were also mentioned for Pleurotuscultivation [16]. Among various mushrooms, Pleurotussp is due most versatile, capable of colonizing and degrading a variety of lignocellulosic wastes into edible protein [17] and are considered suitable for bio-conversion of agro-waste in to food and feed in developing countries [18]. Apart from agro-wastes, few industrial wastes viz., paper residues [19], baby dipers [20], oxo-biodegradable plastic waste [21] etc. have also been tried for the growing of oyster mushroom. Pleurotuscultivation on animal wastes is little documented, therefore, it was interesting to observe that how the mushroom reacts when those substrates are given them as a food source. This investigation was conducted to know the efficiency of Pleurotus florida against animal wastes, viz., human hair and egg shell in respect of various parameters of mushroom production.
RESULTS
The results regarded various parameters of mushroom production are illustrated in Table and Plate.
Mushroom development:
All the substrate showed mycelia colonization. The mycelial growth was significantly (P=0.05) faster on egg shell (18 days) as compared to human hair (23 days). Visual observations regarding mycelia characters also indicated that there was a compact mycelia growth with dense strand in case of egg shell. The interim period of Pin-head formation was observed following the invasion of substrates by mycelia growth. It occurred quickly in human (26 days), followed by egg shell (28 days). Although, egg shell took least time for spawn run, it shows delayed primordial initiation. The time required for maturity of fruiting bodies was observed 32 days and 33 days, respectively for human hair and egg shell.
