1. Water:
- Almost all the mushrooms, barring few, are known to contain about 90 % moisture.
2. PROTEIN AND AMINO ACIDS:
- Mushrooms are known to produce high protein food per unit area as compared with other protein sources like cereal crops, animal and fish proteins. Mushroom protein is found to contain almost all the essential amino acids like Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine, Tryptophan, Hystidine, Threonine, Phenylamine, Methionine, Lysine and also the Alanine, Arginine, Cystine, Glycine, Glutamic acid, Proline, Aspartic acid, Serine etc. Protein content in mushrooms has been found to vary from 1.8 to 5.9 per cent as reported by different analysts. Efforts are also going on for the production of mushroom mycelium in huge quantity and to make them easily acceptable to the people as a substitute of mushroom protein.
- The relative proportion of amino acids in a mushroom is also equally important along with the total protein content. Certain amino acids are essential in a balanced diet because they can not be synthesized in the human body and a diet lacking even one of the essential amino acids will produce deficiency symptoms. Mushroom protein is believed to be less nutritionally complete than meat protein due to its relatively low content of certain amino acids. Although mushroom protein contains threonine, valine and phenylalanine in similar amounts to meat protein, it may be slightly inferior in isoleucine, leucine, lysine and histidine . Methionine and cysteine are somewhat lower in mushroom protein than meat protein and similar to vegetable protein. The protein of mushroom has more lysine and tryptophan than most vegetable proteins .Thus mushroom protein lies intermediate in nutritional quality between meat and vegetable proteins .
3. FIBRE:
- High fibre content ( 3-32 % ) in mushrooms helps in digestibility and prevention of constipation and acidity problems . Mushrooms are also known to contain fibre with chitin as its main component .
4. CARBOHYDRATES:
- Carbohydrates are the main component of mushroom apart from water and account for an average of 4.2 per cent of the fresh weight . The edible mushrooms are quite low in carbohydrate and fat content . They contain 4-5 % carbohydrate, including chitin, hemicellulose and glycogen . Absence of starch in mushrooms makes them an ideal food for diabetic patients and also to those who want to shed excess fat from their bodies to remain slim.
5. FATS:
- Fat content is low ( about 0.3 % ) but it is rich in essential fatty acids like Linoleic, Palmitic, Stearic and Oleic acids. Cholesterol is absent but ergosterol is present ( 0.2 – 270 mg. / 100 gm . dry weight ) which can be converted into Vitamin–D.
6. VITAMINS:
- Mushrooms have been known to be the good sources of almost all types of vitamins like thiamine ( B 1), riboflavin ( B 2), niacin, biotin, ascorbic acid, X - carotene ( Vitamin – A ) and ergesterol ( Vitamin –D ) are also active and Folic acid and vitamin B-12 are present in mushroom, although absent in vegetables . Presence of Vitamin – C ( 4-8 mg / 100 gm. dry weight ), vitamin –K and vitamin –E have also been reported. Mushrooms have been reported to be an excellent source of riboflavin, niacin and pentothenic acid.
7. MINERALS:
- Mushrooms are good source of almost all the minerals. Calcium content is high, iron is in low amount but it is in available form . Good for hypertension patients as the Potassium / Sodium ratio is very high. Also contains Cadmium ( 0.002 ppm ), Lead ( 0.03 -13.5 ppm ) and traces of Selenium . Potassium, a mineral that is evenly distributed throughout the sporophore is present in such quantity that 200 g mushroom could provide the full daily requirement of this element. Copper is accumulated by members of the Agaricus family and is most abundant in the outer layers and in cap and gills .
- Apart from the high nutritional content, mushrooms are also known to have the medicinal value. With high protein, low calories, no sugar and starch , they are considered to be the " delight of the diabetic ” . Doctors generally recommend the sugar as well as heart patients to eat mushrooms because of low calories , low fat ( rich in linoleic acid , lacking in cholesterol and the high Potassium – Sodium ratio ) content mushrooms are the dieticians choice for those patients with hypertension, heart diseases and obesity. High fibre content and the alkaline ash content help those patients with constipation and hyperacidity problems . Diseases like scurby, beri- beri , cardiac discomfort etc, can be cured by consuming mushrooms regularly as these are rich in thiamine and other vitamin contents.
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