Oyster mushrooms, <i>Pleurotus ostreatus</i>, and King Oyster mushrooms, <i>P. eryngii</i>, are both known to be sources of the statin drug lovastatin, a hypolipidemic agent. These mushrooms must be cooked prior to consumption in order to deactivate a heat-labile hemolytic protein, ostreolysin. Our studies have detected both lovastatin and citrinin in oyster mushrooms, a bracket fungi, as well as many other types of mushrooms. Citrinin is a nephrotoxic mycotoxin. Citrinin is most often associated with animal intoxications. While it has been implicated in Balkan nephropathy and yellow rice disease in humans, citrinin is not normally encountered by humans because it is thermally decomposed during the routine milling and rolling of grain. Because both lovastatin and citrinin are present in these and other mushrooms, a study has been made to determine the fate of both lovastatin and citrinin during cooking. Levels of lovastatin were monitored before and after heat treatment, cooking.

Oyster mushrooms: The fate of lovastatin and citrinin during cooking

251st National Meeting (2016)

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