Effect of carbon dioxide on the physicochemical quality of Ganoderma lucidum Sudheer Surya1, Singh Ajit2, Ali Asgar3, Manickam Sivakumar4,* 1Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Malaysia 2School of Bioscience, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Malaysia 3Centre of Excellence for Postharvest Biotechnology (CEPB), School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Malaysia 4Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Science, Tallinn University of Technology, 12618, Tallinn, Estonia *Corresponding author E-mail address: Sivakumar.Manickam@nottingham.edu.my
Online published on 17 August, 2019. Abstract Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is one of the important abiotic elicitors which can induce both beneficial and harmful effects in the organisms. In this research investigation, the effect of CO2 gas was tested to study the enhancement of bioactive compounds in G. lucidum. Similarly, the generation of reactive oxygen species was studied by colorimetric assays. The fruiting bodies of G. lucidum were exposed to external CO2 supplied from a CO2 cylinder as well as from elevated respiratory CO2 produced by fruiting bodies of G. lucidum owing to cellular respiration at fixed treatment time (1, 12, 24, and 48 h) to study the effect of CO2 in eliciting the bioactive compounds in the fruiting bodies of this mushroom. 18.3% O2 and excess CO2 (<5%) for 24 h have been found to be the best for the elicitation of bioactive compounds such as total phenolic content (TPC), flavonoids, water-soluble polysaccharides, and ganoderic acids along with an increase in its antioxidant potential. Top Keywords G. lucidum, Carbon dioxide, Postharvest, Antioxidant activity, polysaccharide, ganoderic acids. Top |