Ergosterol, ergosta7,22 dienol, ergosta 5,7 dienol, fungisterol,7,6,8(14),22-tetraen-3-ona were the fungal sterols detected in Agaricus bisporus mushrooms after optimization of an sterol extraction method. Their concentration ranged from 3.1-11.2 mg/g dw depending on the strain, casing soil, flush number, developmental stage and sporophore tissue analyzed. Two methods were optimized to obtain sterols enriched extracts from A. bisporus fruiting bodies using pressurized fluid (PLE) and supercritical fluid extractions (SFE). PLE using ethanol as solvent at 10.7 MPa (50ºC and 100ºC) after 5 cycles of 5 min extraction (mixing in the extraction cell the sample with sand in a ratio 1:4) yielded extracts with respect. 5 and 2.9% sterols. Using SFE-CO2 at 40ºC and 9 to 30 MPa fractions containing 60% of sterols were obtained. Both technologies could be also utilized to extract sterols from mushroom by-products (the lower part of the stipe) as a method for their valorization.
IntroductionCardiovascular diseases (CVD) are one of the leading causes of death in industrialized countries. Although, up to 80% of the cases could be prevented by changing style life, advertises of public agencies do not have the impact they should.Nowadays, only the consumption of functional foods with hypocholesterolemic properties seems to be better accepted by the CVD risk population than other changes.The functional foods, available at the markets, bearing the claim `able to reduce cholesterol levels in serum´ contain mainly plant phytosterol (Ling & Jones, 1995;Turnham, 1999), or cereal β-glucans. The mechanism of action of the hypocholesterolemic β-glucans is not completely elucidated (Cheickna & Hui, 2012) while apparently the phytosterols are able to impair cholesterol absorption by displacing Edible mushrooms also contain sterols with structural similarities to phytosterols and cholesterol. Thus, these fungal molecules might also act as phytosterols displacing cholesterol from the DMMs. Ergosterol (ergosta-5,7,22-trien-3β-ol) is the major sterol of their hyphae membranes (approx. 80% of the sterols w/w) followed by other 4 derivatives such as ergosta-5,8,22-trien-3-ol, ergosta-7,22-dien-3-ol, ergosta-5,7-dien-3-ol and ergosta-7-en-3-ol In this work, ergosterol and derivatives were measured in several Agaricus bisporus varieties during different cultivation parameters, developmental stages, sporophore tissues etc. The sterols were extracted by both SFE and PLE technologies in order to compare them and define the optimal method and extraction parameters to obtain sterols-enriched fractions. Extractions were carried out using the complete fruiting body or the lower part of the stipe usually discarded as a by-product during harvesting to investigate the possible revalorization of this by-product as starting material to generate ergosterol-enriched fractions for novel functional ingredients with hypocholesterolemic properties. stage was studied). In some cases, the different sporophore tissues, including the lower part of the stipe...