Mushroom as a product and their role in mycoremediation

Abstract

Mushroom has been used for consumption as product for a long time due to their flavor and richness in protein. Mushrooms are also known as mycoremediation tool because of their use in remediation of different types of pollutants. Mycoremediation relies on the efficient enzymes, produced by mushroom, for the degradation of various types of substrate and pollutants. Besides waste degradation, mushroom produced a vendible product for consumption. However, sometimes they absorb the pollutant in their mycelium (biosorption process) and cannot be consumed due to absorbed toxicants. This article reviews the achievement and current status of mycoremediation technology based on mushroom cultivation for the remediation of waste and also emphasizes on the importance of mushroom as product. This critical review is also focused on the safety aspects of mushroom cultivation on waste.

Mycoremediation (bioremediation with fungi) – growing mushrooms to clean the earth

“…at Fukushima). It has been suggested that edible mushrooms might be grown for the purposes of mycoremediation, and the prospects of whether they would be safe to eat afterwards are considered (Kulshreshtha et al, 2014). Naturally this depends on the exact nature of the pollutants, so that heavy metals are likely be a problem (if they are absorbed and concentrated into the mushroom), while some organic soil contaminants might be decomposed without so imparting toxicity.…”

The fungal ability for biobleaching/biopulping/bioremediation of lignin-like compounds of agro-industrial raw material

“…Regarding to mycoremediation, it is an innovative biotechnological application that uses living fungi for in situ and ex situ clean-up and management of contaminated sites, since they play a broad variety of functions in ecosystem, breaking down long chain pollutants, natural or xenobiotic, into simpler less toxic chemicals and/or removing metals, metalloids and radionuclides (either by adsorption, chemical modification or by influencing chemical bioavailability) from soil and effluents. 127 Especially fungi that are autochthonous for particular sites are effective as bioremediators, 128,129 and their use may be a clean, simple and relatively inexpensive approach that needs only a small space, less skilled persons and can be applied easily in the field for environment correction. 127 A study of the effect of a combined biostimulationbioaugmentation was performed with Rhizopus sp., Penicillium funiculosum and Aspergillus sydowii strains isolated from two aged soils contaminated with 60, 600 and 500,000 mg of a complex mixture of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), which comprises 40% aliphatic hydrocarbons (AH) and 21% polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), per kg −1 dried soil.…”

“…127 Especially fungi that are autochthonous for particular sites are effective as bioremediators, 128,129 and their use may be a clean, simple and relatively inexpensive approach that needs only a small space, less skilled persons and can be applied easily in the field for environment correction. 127 A study of the effect of a combined biostimulationbioaugmentation was performed with Rhizopus sp., Penicillium funiculosum and Aspergillus sydowii strains isolated from two aged soils contaminated with 60, 600 and 500,000 mg of a complex mixture of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), which comprises 40% aliphatic hydrocarbons (AH) and 21% polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), per kg −1 dried soil. The native fungi were able to grow in a complex solid mixture of hydrocarbons of high molecular weight, after previous acclimatization in liquid culture, and they removed respectively 36%, 30% and 17% more PAH in comparison with biostimulation alone.…”

“…129 The bioremediation using fungi (Table 3) has many advantages, although still is a challenge for the researchers and technics, since when it is carried out on site, it eliminates the need to transport the contaminated materials to treatment places, occurring immediate mitigation of odour and visible improvement of the soil or effluent safety (weeks to months), and even generating some interesting byproducts. 127 The free range of phenolic compounds from biodegraded lignin, for instance, are potential substrates for bioconversion by ω-transaminases (ω-TAm) into valueadded chemicals: the CV2025 ω-TAm from Chromobacterium violaceum DSM30191 was explored for selective amination using (S)-α-methylbenzylamine (MBA) as the amino donor. Vanillin was identified as the best potential substrate which is converted into vanillylamine, an intermediate in the preparation of pelargonic acid vanillylamide used as a hyperemia inducing active substance in wound dressings.…”

“…Dead fungal biomass, for instance, offers certain advantages over living cells, and can be obtained from industries as a waste of fermentation processes. 127 Heavy metal and radioactive cations, of course, cannot be decomposed but by a change in oxidation state, for instance, such as U (IV) (in UO 2 ), they can be rendered into forms of low solubility, so that they remain less harmfully in the ground, or might be physically removed by plants or fungi through biosorption, which involves harvesting the plant or fungus, but on the other hand, this process generates non-consumable biomass, which gives rise to the new problem of disposing it. Therefore, in the case of remediation, preference should be given to those safety species which can remediate first a type of waste and further use for consumption.…”