Obtaining a useful product will help solve the problem of environmental pollution

On the eve of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we are talking about a scientific study by Vyatka State University graduate student Yulia Zlobina.

Postgraduate student of the Department of Ecology and Environmental Management of Vyatka State University Yulia Zlobina, under the scientific supervision of Professor Alexander Shirokikh, proposed her solution to the problem of environmental pollution. It is associated with the widespread cultivation of mushrooms - and not only champignon and oyster mushrooms, which are popular with us, but also other basidial (tubular) mushrooms, which have no less valuable properties.

Among them, for example, are the combed blackberry (Hericium erinaceus), which has the appearance of thin needles hanging down and thus resembling a hedgehog. In nature, it grows on the trunks of deciduous trees, and is among the rare ones. The fungus is used in the food industry and medicine.

Hericium erinaceus can also be grown in the laboratory on a sawdust or straw substrate. At the same time, the fungus acts as a destructor of sawdust and straw, transforming plant waste into economically significant secondary products.

     "There is a process of bioconversion - the transformation of organic material into a usable product. In this case, Hericium erinaceus, like other wood-destroying mushrooms, decomposes the substrate and at the same time enriches it with mushroom protein," - Yulia Zlobina said.

The value of the product, into which the nutrient substrate is transformed, is due to the possibility of its use in agriculture: both as a fertilizer and a feed additive for farm animals and birds.

Vyatka State University scientists strive to find the ideal substrate formula, the best option that allows you to simultaneously obtain two products of the highest quality: mushroom fruiting bodies and an enriched substrate. For this purpose, Yulia explained, various additives are used; for example, grain. The results of a study conducted using a mixture of straw, oak sawdust and oat grain in various proportions were published in the scientific journal Theoretical and Applied Ecology.

Photos of Hericium erinaceus in nature and laboratory conditions were taken by Professor A.A. Shirokih.

Read in Russian