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Neurological diseases are increasingly recognized as a health burden worldwide, mainly affecting the elderly population. Sanguinoderma rugosum (=Amauroderma rugosum) is a wild medicinal mushroom traditionally used to alleviate inflammation and prevent seizures. The present study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective and neurorescue effects as well as the possible mechanisms of S. rugosum extracts on glutamate-induced HT-22 mouse hippocampal neuronal cells. The mycelia of S. rugosum were subjected to submerged liquid fermentation followed by solvent extraction and fractionation. The neurotoxicity, neuroprotective, and neurorescue activities of S. rugosum extracts were assessed via the MTT viability assay at 24 and 48 h. The effects of S. rugosum extracts on glutamate-induced oxidative stress and cell death were investigated through flow cytometry. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis was conducted to identify the bioactive compounds in the S. rugosum hexane fraction (SR-HF). All extracts were noncytotoxic toward HT-22 cells. Pretreatment with S. rugosum ethanolic extract (SR-EE; 12.5 μg/mL) or SR-HF (100 μg/mL) markedly (P0.05) improved the loss of cell viability and attenuated the accumulation of reactive oxygen species production. Pretreatment with SR-HF was also demonstrated to inhibit glutamate-induced cell death. The MTT assay showed that all extracts generally rescued glutamate-induced HT-22 cells at 24 and 48 h. The GC/MS analysis revealed the existence of 11 bioactive components in SR-HF, with linoleic acid, ergosterol, and ethyl linoleate being the main chemical constituents. The current findings suggest that SR-HF could be used as a potential therapeutic intervention to ameliorate oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.

Mushroom cultivation and palm oil industry in Malaysia have contributed to the large volumes of lignocellulosic residues. Accumulation of the residues causes serious environmental pollution effects by burning process of the agroresidues. Hence, this study illustrated the utilization of lignocellulolytic enzymes from the spent mushroom substrate of Pleurotus pulmonarius for the hydrolysis of palm oil mill effluent (POME). The hydrolysate was then used for the production of biohydrogen gas. Enzyme assays were carried out to determine the productivities of lignin peroxidase, laccase, xylanase, endoglucanase and β-glucosidase activities in spent mushroom substrate. Further, the enzyme cocktails were concentrated for the hydrolysis of palm oil mill effluent. Central composite design of response surface methodology was performed to examine the effects of enzyme loading, incubation time and pH on the reducing sugar yield. Productivities of the enzymes for xylanase, laccase, endoglucanase, lignin peroxidase and β-glucosidase were 2.3 U g-1, 4.1 U g-1, 14.6 U g-1, 214.1 U g-1 and 915.4 U g-1, respectively. A maximum of 3.75 g/L of reducing sugar was obtained under optimized conditions of 15 hours incubation time with 10% enzyme loading (v/v) at a pH of 4.8, which was consistent with the predicted reducing sugar concentration (3.76 g/L). The biohydrogen cumulative volume (302.78 ml H2.L-1 POME) and 83.52% of biohydrogen gas were recorded using batch fermentation study which indicated that the enzymes of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) can be utilized for hydrolysis of POME.

Black jelly mushroom (Auricularia polytricha) is a well-known Chinese traditional food that has therapeutic effects. This study evaluated the effects of different cooking methods (boiling, steaming, microwaving, and stir-frying) on the physicochemical characteristics (i.e., total phenolic content, antioxidants, α,α-diphenyl-β-picryl-hydrazyl [DPPH] free radical scavenging, and ferric reducing antioxidant power [FRAP]) along with color, texture, moisture, and sensory properties of black jelly mushrooms. Lightness (L*) was significantly lower for the stir-frying method (29.93) compared to the control (34.62). Stir-fried mushrooms had significantly lower firmness force (texture) and moisture content (80.13 N and 61.98%, respectively) compared to the control (2000.37 N and 86.52%). The steaming method contributed significantly higher total phenolic content (11.23 mg gallic acid equivalents/g) and antioxidant activity measured using the FRAP (33.54 mg Trolox equivalents/g) and DPPH (90.41% inhibition) assays compared to the respective controls.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has been studied extensively for its unique self-assembling behavior for applications in the field of molecular electronics. The study of sequence-specific electronic properties of DNA is one such study which could potentially be utilized as a platform to understand its charge transfer mechanism useful for integration into DNA-based electronics. However, DNA charge transfer are significantly regulated by various environmental factors, such as pH fluctuations which influences the stability of the double helix structure and strongly attenuates its' electronic profile. Extreme pH conditions lead to aggravated structural and chemical changes leading to DNA damage, which could have profound biological consequences. In this work, pH influence on basidiomycetes DNAs integrated within an aluminium (Al)-indium tin oxide (ITO) Schottky junction was investigated. In general, the junction structure exhibited Ohmic behaviour at high acidic (pH 1 to 2) and basic (pH 13 to 14) environments, while behaving as a semiconductive Schottky-like junction at intermediate pH values. Furthermore, various solid-state parameters calculated for the DNA enable the gathering of information towards understanding the charge transfer mechanism in DNA molecules as a function of pH conditions, which could act as a potential indicator for various stages of DNA functionality.

Mushroom cultivation along with the palm oil industry in Malaysia have contributed to large volumes of accumulated lignocellulosic residues that cause serious environmental pollution when these agroresidues are burned. In this study, we illustrated the utilization of lignocellulolytic enzymes from the spent mushroom substrate of

A nation’s ruling political party has the right to draft and implement economic policies, including budgetary policy. In the case of Malaysia, budget policy and expenditure is associated with medium- and long-term economic development plans, the current thinking behind economic policies, and any additional measures related to major economic events such as the impact of global economic crises. Also, the budget includes economic policies according to the ruling party’s manifesto. Even though the allocation of the budget is the ruling government’s privilege, the government’s financial plans, spending, taxation and borrowing are subject to laws, rules and procedures. The ruling government cannot simply utilise economic resources for its particular political interests, as the discussion illustrates.

Morphological identification of edible mushrooms can sometimes prove troublesome, because phenotypic variation in fungi can be affected by substrate and environmental factors. One of the most important problems for mushroom breeders is the lack of a systematic consensus tool to distinguish different species, which are sometimes morphologically identical. Basidiomycetes as one of the largest groups of edible mushrooms have become more important in recent times for their medicinal and nutritional properties. Partial rDNA sequences, including the Internal Transcribed Spacer I-5.8SrDNA-Internal Transcribed Spacer II, were used in this study for molecular identification and assessment of phylogenetic relationships between selected edible species of the Basidiomycetes. Phylogenetic trees showed five distinct clades; each clade belonging to a separate family group. The first clade included all the species belonging to the Pleurotaceae (Pleurotus spp.) family; similarly, the second, third, fourth, and fifth clades consist of species from the Agaricaceae (Agaricus sp.), Lyophllaceae (Hypsigygus sp.), Marasmiaceae (Lentinula edodes sp.) and Physalacriaceae (Flammulina velutipes sp.) families, respectively. Moreover, different species of each family were clearly placed in a distinct sub-cluster and a total of 13 species were taken for analysis. Species differentiation was re-confirmed by AMOVA analysis (among the populations: 99.67%; within: 0.33%), nucleotide divergence, haplotyping and P value. Polymorphism occurred throughout the ITS regions due to insertion-deletion and point mutations, and can be clearly differentiated within the families as well as genera. Moreover, this study proves that the sequence of the ITS region is a superior molecular DNA barcode for taxonomic identification of Basidiomycetes.