Rare edible mushroom Pleurotus citrinopileatus, how much do you know about it?

Pleurotus citrinopileatus sing., also known as golden-top mushroom, Yuhuang mushroom and golden oyster mushroom, belongs to the family Pleurotaceae and the genus Pleurotus, and is a famous wild edible mushroom in our country. It is golden in color, strongly aromatic, delicious in taste and rich in nutrients. Pleurotus citrinopileatus has a crisp and tender texture and a delicious flavor, and its distinctive fresh aroma is especially appealing. It is suitable both for fresh eating and for processing, and is a delicious fungus used as both food and medicine, with the characteristics of high protein, high fiber, low fat and low sugar.

Pleurotus citrinopileatus

Pleurotus citrinopileatus is distributed in Northeast China, Hebei, Sichuan and Yunnan, and is also found in Japan, Europe and North America. In the warm and rainy summer and autumn seasons, it grows as a saprophyte on the base of dead standing trunks, stumps and fallen logs of broadleaf trees such as elm, oak, birch, poplar, willow and walnut. Its fruiting body is pale yellow or golden yellow, the cap is shallowly funnel-shaped with a diameter of 3-10cm, the flesh is white, the stipe is lateral, 2-10cm long and 0.5-2cm thick, and the fruiting bodies grow in clusters (a single cluster weighs 200-1500g, and the largest can reach more than 5kg, shaped like a flower). Pleurotus citrinopileatus is a medium-to-high temperature fungus. The temperature range for the growth and development of the mycelium is 12-30°C, with an optimum temperature of 23-27°C; the temperature range for the growth and development of the fruiting body is 10-29°C, with an optimum temperature of 17-23°C. Generally, mushroom buds can form within the range of 14-28°C, and 17-25°C is the most suitable; the optimum pH value for mycelial growth is 5.0-6.5.

Pleurotus citrinopileatus

Although Pleurotus citrinopileatus has a low fat content, its unsaturated fatty acid content is very high, and it can effectively lower blood lipids and prevent obesity and cardiovascular diseases. It contains various amino acids essential to the human body as well as trace elements such as K, P, Fe, Ca, Na, Mg and Mn, but the content of the heavy metals Cu and Zn, which are harmful to the human body, is extremely low. Xie Fuquan and others determined the contents of crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, moisture and amino acids in the fruiting bodies of 4 strains of Pleurotus citrinopileatus from different regions. The results showed that the moisture content of the fresh mushrooms of the tested strains was 87.5-89.7%; the contents of crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber and amino acids in the dried mushrooms were 42.3-47.9%, 0.8-1.9%, 10.7-14.9% and 23.68-25.42% respectively; the 7 tested essential amino acids for the human body were abundant, among which the contents of arginine and glutamic acid approached or exceeded those of α-casein and ovalbumin.