Effect of sporophore maturity on chemical composition of Volvariella esculenta (Mass) SINGER,a Nigerian mushroom

The “egg”, “elongated” and “mature” stages of Volvariella esculenta (Mass) SINGER sporocarps were analysed for their chemical composition. The “egg” stage was found to contain the richest amount of nutrients and the “elongated” stage the poorest. The “egg” stage was richer in protein, amino acids, lipid, crude fibres, glycogen, sugars, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus than the “elongated” and “mature” sporocarp stages. At any sporocarp stage, the pileus contained greater amounts of moisture, sugars, ash, lipid, protein, amino acid, phosphorus, iron, copper and zinc than the stipe while the stipe contained more dry matter, crude fibre, calcium and magnesium.