A large amount of agro-industrial waste is produced worldwide in various agricultural sectors and by different food industries. The disposal and burning of this waste have created major global environmental problems. Agro-industrial waste mainly consists of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, all of which are collectively defined as lignocellulosic materials. This waste can serve as a suitable substrate in the solid-state fermentation process involving mushrooms. Mushrooms degrade lignocellulosic substrates through lignocellulosic enzyme production and utilize the degraded products to produce their fruiting bodies. Therefore, mushroom cultivation can be considered a prominent biotechnological process for the reduction and valorization of agro-industrial waste. Such waste is generated as a result of the eco-friendly conversion of low-value by-products into new resources that can be used to produce value-added products. Here, we have produced a brief review of the current findings through an overview of recently published literature. This overview has focused on the use of agro-industrial waste as a growth substrate for mushroom cultivation and lignocellulolytic enzyme production.

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This article reviews and updates data on macro and trace elements and radionuclides in edible wild-grown and cultivated mushrooms. A huge biodiversity of mushrooms and spread of certain species over different continents makes the study on their multi-element constituents highly challenging. A few edible mushrooms are widely cultivated and efforts are on to employ them (largely Agaricus spp., Pleurotus spp., and Lentinula edodes) in the production of selenium-enriched food (mushrooms) or nutraceuticals (by using mycelia) and less on species used by traditional medicine, e.g., Ganoderma lucidum. There are also attempts to enrich mushrooms with other elements than Se and a good example is enrichment with lithium. Since minerals of nutritional value are common constituents of mushrooms collected from natural habitats, the problem is however their co-occurrence with some hazardous elements including Cd, Pb, Hg, Ag, As, and radionuclides. Discussed is also the problem of erroneous data on mineral compounds determined in mushrooms.

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The distribution of arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium was investigated in 1194 samples of 60 species of common, edible mushrooms collected mainly in the province of Reggio Emilia, Italy. The quantitative determination of heavy metals (mg/kg dry weight) was carried out by spectrophotometry, with the exception of Hg, which was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The amount of arsenic accumulated in the samples studied was in general modest. Sarcosphaera eximia, on the other hand, may contain arsenic concentrations reaching 1000 mg/kg dry weight. Within the Agaricus Subgenus Flavoagaricus, only Agaricus nivescens contains amounts of cadmium inferior to the allowed maximum level. The Cd levels in samples of Amanita caesarea, Boletus edulis and Boletus pinophilus exceeded the maximum amount allowed. The content of cadmium in Agaricus macrosporus is roughly 50 times the maximum weekly dose recommended by the WHO. The average amount of lead present in all samples, was in general, below the the maximum allowed concentration. Agaricus bitorquis, Agaricus arvensis, Agaricus essettei, Agaricus albertii, B. pinophilus, Clitocybe geotropa, and Macrolepiota rachodes had high contents of Hg that were within the range 5-10 mg/kg dry weight. Mushrooms in general, but species in the B. edulis group, in particular, were rich in selenium. Accumulation of specific heavy metals could be species-specific and thus assume a taxonomic role but it has proved in our study to be unreliable as an ecological indicator.

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