Effect of different rates of agitation on mycelium growth and amino acid composition of Lentinula edodes in submerged cultures

Lentinula edodes and its mycelium are widely used due to its flavour and medicinal properties. In this study, agitated submerged culture technique was employed to grow Lentinula edodes mycelium in PDB (potato dextrose broth) and PDB++ (PDB, yeast extract, malt extract, peptone, KHZP04 and MgS04.7HzO) media with different rates of orbital agitation (50, 100, 120, 150, 200 rpm). The effect of different agitation rates on the amino acid compositio n of the mycelium was determined by the High Performance Liquid Chromatography techniques (HPLC). The optimum growth of the mycelium was observed on the PDB++ medium shaken at a rate of 120 rpm after 15 days and the mycelium harvested had the highest content of amino acid with glutamic acid the major component.