Diversity of macrofungi and nutrient analysis of selected wild edible mushrooms in Thulo Ban Community Forest.of Arjam, Myagdi District

Abstract

Macrofungi are Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes members that produce mature spore-bearing and morphologically distinct fruiting bodies. They grow either above ground (epigenous) or underground (hypogenous) in nature. They are key player conservation of forest ecosystems and biodiversity. The current study deals with the diversity of macrofungi in the subtropical mixed forest of Myagdi district. Survey was conducted from the end of June to the beginning of September 2020. Macrofungi were sampled using a systematic random procedure at altitudes ranging from 1250- 1450 meters above sea level. The sampling was done by using a 10×10m quadrat in three transects at the distance of 100 m, and a total of 18 plots were made. Distance between each plot was approximately 50 m. A total of 70 macrofungal taxa were collected. Among them, 60 were identified at the species level, and 10 were identified at the generic level belonging to 26 different families and 12 orders. Russulaceae was found to be the most dominant family with 16 species whereas Mycena sp. was found to be much denser with value 11.88 % and Cantharellus cibarius was much frequent species containing 44.44 %. The Shannon diversity index was 3.49 and Simpson index was 0.95. The study analyze the nutrient content of three wild edible mushrooms namely Cantharellus cibarius, Laccaria laccata, and Scleroderma cepa commonly consume by the local people of Arjam, Myagdi district. In total, 13 parameters were analyzed such as ash, carbohydrate, fat, moisture, protein, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, iron, manganese and zinc. Test method used for ash was ignition whereas carbohydrate was done by calculation method, fat was done by soxhlet extraction, moisture was done by oven dry method, protein was done by kjeldahl digestion method similarly carbohydrate, calcium and magnesium was done by titration method and phosphorous were done by spectrophotometric method and iron, manganese, copper, zinc and potassium were done by AAS method. All macro and micro nutrient composition were determined on a dry weight basis. Ash, carbohydrate, fat, moisture, and protein ranges from 7.05-13.38%, 61.8971.37%, 0.78-1.41%, 12.37-13.63% and 23.33-24.47% whereas calcium, magnesium,

phosphorus and potassium ranges from 0.13-0.15, 0.09-0.11µg/g, 0.25-0.33 µg/g and

0.41-3.40

µg/g similarly copper, iron, manganese and zinc ranges from 2.40-30.94 µg/g, 0.08-0.20 µg/g, 12.29-16.06 µg/g and 45.70-77.34 µg/g.