Biodegradation of agro-industrial wastes by a edible mushroom Pleurotus tuber-regium (Fr.).

When Pleurotus tuber-regium was cultivated on cotton waste, rice straw, cocoyam peels and sawdusts of Mansonia altissima, Boscia angustifolia and Khaya ivorensis, the highest crude protein, crude fat and carbohydrate contents in sporophores were 29.4 (M. altissima) , 1.4 (rice straw) and 61.3% (cocoyam peels), respectively. Sporophores produced on rice straw had the greatest energy value and those on B. angustifolia the least i.e. 3147.6 and 709.1 kcal g(-1) substrates, respectively. The greatest degradation of the components of the substrates as a result of the cultivation was 62.4 and 71.5% for cellulose and hemicellulose in cotton wastes and 60.2% for lignin in K. ivorensis, with the greatest reduction in energy value of the substrate being 2667.9 kcal g(-1) substrate in K. ivorensis. There was no correlation between the extent of the degradation of these components and the yield of of sporophores, while the energy recovery of substrate in the mushroom was highest for cocoyam peels and least for sawdust of B. angustifolia, 3.7 and 0.5%, respectively.