Chitin-glucan complex from Agaricus blazei, a potential raw material for production of food additives

Agaricus blazei, a mushroom native to Brazil, is a perspective source for food industry. This mushroom has been widely used in folk medicine due to its possible medicinal value. The most important components of fruiting bodies of A. blazei are specific β-glucans with β-(1→3), β-(1→4) andβ-(1→6) glycosidic linkages. These polysaccharides are supposed to be responsible for some healthy properties of mushrooms (anticarcinogenic and antimutagenic ones). p-Glucans are associated with chitin forming water-insoluble chitin-glucan complex. This complex was isolated from fresh and dried mushrooms (separately from caps and stems) by alkali treatment using NaOH solution at 9°C for 2 h. The structure of chitin-glucan complex was analysed by diffuse reflectance FT-IR spectroscopy. p-Glucans were also analysed by Megazyme enzymatic method based on exo-1,3-β-glucanase and p-glucosidase catalysed hydrolysis and photometric determination of the released glucose.