Comparison of free amino acid, carbohydrates concentrations in Korean edible and medicinal mushrooms

Ten popular species of both edible and medicinal Korean mushrooms were analysed for their free amino acids and disaccharides. The average total free amino acid concentration was 120.79 mg g(-1) in edible mushrooms and 61.47 mg g(-1) in medicinal mushrooms, respectively. The average total of free amino acids for all mushrooms, edible mushrooms and medicinal mushrooms was 91.13 mg g(-1). Agaricus blazei (227.00 mg g(-1)) showed the highest concentration of total free amino acids; on the other hand, Inonotus obliquus (2.00 mg g(-1)) showed the lowest concentration among the 10 species of mushrooms. The average total carbohydrates concentration was 46.67 mg g(-1) in the 10 species of mushrooms, where the edible mushrooms contained 66.68 mg g(-1) and the medicinal mushrooms contained 26.65 mg g(-1). The carbohydrates constituents of the 10 mushroom species were mainly mannose (36.23%), glucose (34.70%), and xylose (16.83%). Crown Copyright (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.