User:Stdt.LH/sandbox

Hericium erinaceus (also called lion's mane mushroom, monkey head mushroom, bearded tooth mushroom, satyr's beard, bearded hedgehog mushroom, pom pom mushroom, or bearded tooth fungus) is an edible and medicinal mushroom belonging to the tooth fungus group. Native to North America, Europe and Asia it can be identified by its long spines (greater than 1 cm length), its appearance on hardwoods and its tendency to grow a single clump of dangling spines. Hericium erinaceus can be mistaken for other species of Hericium, which are all popular edibles that grow across the same range. In the wild, these mushrooms are common during late summer and fall on hardwoods, particularly American beech.

Distribution
Although H. erinaceus is native to Europe, it has been red listed in 13 European countries due to poor germination and establishment. This specific genus fruits between August and December in the United Kingdom, and will continue to produce spores until as late as February in the following year. It is able to withstand cold temperatures and frost conditions.

Chemistry
Hericium erinaceus contains a number of polysaccharides, such as β-glucan, heteroglucans, and heteroxylans, as well as several cyathane derivative diterpenoids known as hericenones and erinacines.

Edibility
H. erinaceus is edible.

Soil requirements
As a saprophyte that occurs on dead wood, H. erinaceus requires an adequate substrate. This substrate has to provide suitable carbon sources, nitrogen sources, a precise pH value and carbon/nitrogen ratio.

Depending on the type of cultivation, the substrate can be either solid (artificial log) or liquid (submerged culture and deep submerged culture).

The solid substrate is most commonly found to be a mixture of sawdust and different complements. The sawdust is made up of hardwood or conifer. It can be enriched with wheat bran, wheat straw, soybean meal, corn meal, rice bran and rice straw. For example, H. erinaceus strains grow artificially on beech sawdust substrate enriched with wheat bran (20%), rye grain (25%), soybean meal (7%), rape meal (10%) or meat-osseous flour (6%).

An example of a liquid substrate composition can be : glucose for the carbon source, soybean powder, corn powder, and wheat bran powder as a complex nitrogen source.

The pH values most suitable for the favorable growth of H. erinaceus were observed in the range of 5.0 - 9.0 and the best was pH 6.0.

Many different substrates have been successfully utilized for this mushroom cultivation.

Climate requirements
H. erinaceus requires a humid environment for its growth: 85 to 90% of relative humidity in the air and daily water spraying.

The incubation temperature most suitable for the mycelial growth of H. erinaceus was found to be 25°C and the optimum temperature for vegetative growth was observed to be 26°C.

Cultivation techniques
The artificial cultivation of H. erinaceus was firstly reported in China in 1988, and it is cultivated by artificial log using bottles and polypropylene bags. However, this type of artificial cultivation is not suitable for industrialized production, due to its low yield and long period of time of the cultivation cycle.

Other types of artificial cultivation of H. erinaceus are submerged culture and deep submerged culture. Submerged culture can obtain a large number of mycelia in a shorter period of time.

Fruiting bodies, submerged cultivated mycelial biomass and liquid cultivated broth are sources of the bioactive compound. Those are the different products harvested.

Growers optimize the culture medium composition, so as to obtain simultaneously high yields of H. erinaceus mycelial biomass, exopolysaccharides, and intracellular polysaccharides.

For production of mushroom fruiting bodies, various forms of solid substrate are employed. Whereas for mycelial biomass and biologically active metabolites production, submerged fermentation is preferable to produce a more uniform biomass and pharmaceutical products.