Preliminary investigations into the bioconversion of gamma irradiated agricultural waste by pleurotus spp.

Abstract

The application of gamma irradiation for pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials for their hydrolysis and to increase their digestibility for rumen animal have been reported in the literature. Gamma irradiation of corn stover in combination with sodium hydroxide for bioconversion of polysaccharide into protein by Pleurotus spp has also been reported. In this study experiments were designed to f'md out whether gamma radiation could serve both as a decontaminating agent as well as hydrolytic agent of sawdust for the bioconversion of four varieties of Pleurotus spp. Preliminary results indicate that a dose of 20kGy of gamma irradiation increase the yield of Pleurotus eous vat ET-8 whilst decreasing the yield of other varieties