Fractionation of Mushroom Stems to Various Bioactive Molecules and Processing Chitin to Hydrogel for Wound Healing Application

Oyster Mushrooms have several medicinally active ingredients, such as polysaccharides and vitamins, and their extractives are widely used as nutritional supplements. After the oyster mushrooms are produced, most of the stems are discarded since they are tough to cook and usually end up in landfills. This research is about fractionating mushrooms stems to various bioactive molecules using a combination of re-usable organic solvents and enzymes. A mass balance was completed to quantify various components such as beta-glucans, lipids, vitamins, polyphenols, proteins, and chitin. The mass of each component was identified by measuring the dry weight of mushroom powder left after the extraction. The extracted components were further subjected to spectroscopy [FT-Infrared (FT-IR), powder X-ray diffraction, GC-MS, UV-Visible HPLC] analysis to confirm their structure and composition. The mushroom chitin could be de-acetylated to chitosan and converted to methacrylate chitosan by chemical processing. This chitosan derivative could be crosslinked with the help of the photo initiator Irgacure 2959 and UV light to produce a hydrogel and 3D printed to bio patches used for wound dressing applications. To demonstrate the proof of concept, we took the shrimp shell chitosan and produced methacrylate chitosan and cross-linked to produce hydrogels. We confirmed the reaction by performing FT-IR analysis at different stages. Overall, this research work provides a foundation for converting wasted mushroom stems to chitin which could be further processed to produce chitosan hydrogel bio patches used for wound dressing.