Effect of selenium in growing media on increasing Pleurotus ostreatus Jacq. productivity

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for human metabolism because of its presence as a precursor of enzyme activity. However, the concentration of Se is very low, especially in food. Mushrooms, which are also known as bioaccumulation is an alternative to absorb Se on growing media and further can be accumulated in the human body. The purpose of this study was to increase Se content of fruiting body of Pleurotus ostreatus Jacq. with the treatment of various Se concentrations of growing medias (0, 50, 75 and 100 mg/L), and to analyze the effect of the productivity and morphology of fruiting body. The results of this study suggested that the highest fresh weight of fruiting body was obtained on the addition of 50 mg/L Selenium (80.00±6.35 g). There is no significant difference with the selenium addition of 75 mg/L (77.98±5.94 g) and 100 mg/L (76.81±6.53 g). However, it's significantly different with the control (61.50±5.82 g). The highest diameter of the fruiting body was obtained with the treatment of 50 mg/L selenium (10.56±0.43 cm). Meanwhile, the highest stipe length was obtained on medium without selenium (control) (7.30±2.08 cm) (p> 0.05).