Systematic characterisation, mineral analysis, and valorisation of lignocellulosic waste into sustainable indigenous Ganoderma lucidum production from Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Ganoderma lucidum is a remarkable medicinal macro fungus widely known for its extraordinary healing qualities. Indigenous G. lucidum collected from Punjab, Pakistan, was morpho-⁠anatomically and phylogenetically characterised. After characterisation, it was evaluated for vegetative and reproductive growth potential and subjected to mineral analysis of both wild and cultivated basidiomata of G. lucidum. Among various tested nutrient agar media, maximum G. lucidum mycelial density and growth rate were noted on CEA medium at 32°C. For spawn production, barley grains were found to be the most appropriate medium. The suitability of various types of lignocellulosic substrates was checked for better yield in minimum period of time. The combination of sawdust + wheat straw proved to be the most efficient substrate for the best yield with the maximum number of flushes. Small differences were observed in essential and trace mineral quantities (except nickel) in both wild and cultivated basidiomata, revealing the negligible effect of artificial substrates on the mineral composition of G. lucidum. These findings conclude that indigenous G. lucidum is capable of indoor cultivation on several locally available media and substrates. Cultivating this tremendous medicinal mushroom on a large scale in Pakistan could prove crucial from a pharmaceutical perspective. Providing cultures and fruiting bodies of G. lucidum to the food and therapeutic industries would eliminate their dependence on the availability of G. lucidum for a specific period of the year.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultivation potential
• food security
• Ganoderma
• lingzhi
• optimal conditions
• spawn

Author contribution statement

Aneeqa Ghafoor: Collection, analysis, methodology and writing.

Amna Rana: Methodology and writing.

Abdul Rehman Niazi: Identification, supervision, analysis and methodology.

Data availability statement

Data associated with this article will be available to the GenBank [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/] repository.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.