ABSTRACT

Mushroom is a higher fungus with a distinguishable fruit body, which can be either epigeous (grow above the ground) or hypogenous (grow underground; i.e. truffles) and sufficiently late enough to the naked eye to be picked by hand. This study aims to test for the proximate composition of Schizophyllum commune spawn grown on sorghum grains. Schizophyllum commune was cultivated on Sorghum grains and the mycelia were harvested after complete colonization, 3 weeks, 8 weeks and 10 weeks after inoculation. The improved content of crude protein, crude fat, carbohydrate, ash content of S. commune mycelia comparing to the substrate was established. The results revealed that the ash content was higher after 8 weeks of inoculation (7.90±0.02%) and 10 weeks after inoculation (8.44±0.08%). The crude protein was higher after 10 weeks of inoculation (20.50±0.5%) and least for the control (14.58±1.08%). the carbohydrate content decreased as the time of mycelia colonization increases: the control samples had (60.60±1.25%), 3 weeks (65.3±1.2%), at 8 weeks (56.63±0.95%) and at week 10 (54.47±0.32%). the fat content however increased from 5.61±0.68 % for untreated grains, 7.0±0.57 % after 3 weeks and 8.65±012 %. The ash content and fibre were higher after 8 weeks of mycelia growth, but decreased afterwards. The study has shown that nutritional content of sorghum grains can be improved or enriched by growing mycelia of Schizophyllum commune. Fortification of sorghum grains and other staple grains with Schizophyllum commune can increase the nutritional quality of their use as food.