ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to determine the effects of rice bran (RB) on the growth of Marasmius species and Schizophyllum commune cultivated on the sawdust of Albizia lebbeck. Marasmius sp and Schizophyllum commune are both edible and medicinal mushrooms. Substrate bags of sawdust were supplemented with rice bran at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. The bags were pasteurized and inoculated with spawn of Marasmius sp and Schyzophyllum commune at the rate of 5%. The inoculated bags were incubated in a dark room at room temperature (25°C) for mycelial growth and fruiting. It was observed that increase in the level of rice bran supplementation gave a decrease in the time for mycelial colonization, primordial emergence and fruit body formation. Increase in percentage supplementation also gave better yield and biological efficiency (BE). The results showed that 20% RB gave the fastest time (8.20±0 45 days) for half mycelial colonization of Marasmius sp, followed by 15% rice bran supplemented sawdust (10.20±0.45 days), and longest for 0% RB (11.80±0.45 days). 20% RB also gave the fastest time (22.60±0.60 days) for complete mycelial colonization of Marasmius sp, followed by 15% RB supplemented sawdust (23.8±0.45 days) and longest for 0% RB (25.80±0.45 days). 20% RB gave the fastest time (27.80±0.45 days) for primordial emergence of Marasmius sp., followed by 15% RB supplemented sawdust (28.60±0.54 days), while 0% RB gave the longest time (31.80±0.45 days). 20% RB gave the fastest time (28.80±0.45 days) for fruit body formation of Marasmius sp, followed by 15% RB supplemented sawdust (29.60±0.54 days) and longest for 0% RB (32.80±0.70 days). The highest biological efficiency (18.07%) was obtained for 20% rice bran supplementation, followed by 15% rice bran supplementation (10.54%), while the lowest (6.62%) was obtained with 0% (control) rice bran supplementation for Marasmius sp. This indicates that increasing the supplement levels resulted in higher biological efficiency. Schyzophyllum commune, on the other hand, had the shortest time for mycelial colonization with 20% RB and longest for 0% RB. While it took an average of 41.20±0.45 days for primordial emergence, fruitification was very poor for Schyzophyllum commune even at higher level of RB supplementation. The results have proven that Marasmius sp was able to utilize the supplemented sawdust substrate for growth and fruit body formation, while Schizophyllum commune did not perform very well on the substrate tested. Supplementation of sawdust could be used to improve the production of fruit bodies of the mushroom, Marasmius sp.