Optimization of medium composition for the production of Pleurotus ostreatus biomass and phenols in submerged fermentation with response surface methodology

Abstract

There is a marked interest in obtaining mycelial biomass and bioactive compounds more quickly and efficiently, from edible fungi. Pleurotus ostreatus is one of the most widely cultivated species in the world, due to the nutritional quality of its biomass and the presence of metabolites of pharmacological importance. In the present work, the response surface methodology was used in the optimization of the YPG culture medium, aiming to obtain the maximum concentration of biomass and total phenols, by means of submerged fermentation of Pleurotus ostreatus. Based on a central composite design, two second-order polynomial mathematical models were fitted to the experimental results obtained from the production of mycelial biomass and total phenols. It was observed that the concentrations of the nitrogen sources had bigger significant influence on the production of biomass. Both the nitrogen and carbon source concentrations had a significant influence on the total phenol concentration. The models predicted a maximum biomass concentration value of 15,28 g·L-1 for a culture medium with 28,41 g·L-1 glucose, 5,68 g·L-1 yeast extract and 2,32 g·L-1 peptone, as well as a maximum total phenols concentration of 104 μg·mL-1 for the following culture medium composition: 11,59 g·L-1 glucose, 2,32 g·L-1 yeast extract and 2,32 g·L-1 peptone.