Extracellular Polysaccharide Production by Culinary-Medicinal Shiitake Mushroom Lentinus edodes (Berk.) Singer and Pleurotus (Fr.) P. Karst. Species Depending on Carbon and Nitrogen Source

The effects of different carbon and nitrogen sources on culinary—medicinal shiitake mushroom Lentinus edodes and Pleurotus species growth and polysaccharide production in submerged cultivation has been investigated. Maximal biomass and extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) production was achieved when sodium gluconate or glucose was used as the only carbon source and peptone or corn steep liquor as the nitrogen source. The cultivation process in shake flasks could be successfully reproduced in a laboratory bioreactor.