Nematocidal activity of hydroalcoholic extracts of spent substrate of Pleurotus djamor on L3 larvae of Haemonchus contortus.

The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the in vitro lethal effect of the hydroalcoholic extract of the spent substrate of Pleurotus djamor ECS-123, obtained at 15 days of colonization (SPS) and at the first (SPS1) and second (SPS2) harvests, against infective larvae L3 of Haemonchus contortus. The in vitro lethal effect was evaluated by the L3 larval mortality test (LM) using six concentrations: 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 40 mg/mL, with ivermectin and thiabendazole (5 mg/mL) as controls. The first harvest extract (SPS1) of strain ECS-123 was subjected to liquid-liquid bipartition, which resulted in two fractions: aqueous (PdAcO) and ethyl acetate (PdAct). The chemical fractionation of PdAct with the highest mortality rate (80.11 %) was carried out with open-column chromatography, giving a total of 13 fractions, which were analyzed by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and grouped into 5 mixtures (R1;1-3, R2;4-7, R3;8-9, R4;10-11 and R5;12-13). Subsequently, the mixtures were evaluated against H. contortus L3 larvae. Finally, the components of the mixtures with the highest nematocidal effects were evaluated by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The data were analyzed with a completely randomized design through ANOVA using the generalized linear model (GLM) with the "R" program. The purification and characterization of R4 and R5 by GC-MS revealed the presence of the following compounds: veratryl alcohol, 4-hydroxy-3,5,5 trimethyl-4-[3-oxo-1-butenyl]-2- cyclohexen-1-one, caffeine and 5,6-dimethoxy-1(3 H) isobenzofuranone. This information allowed for the identification of nematocidal compounds in the degraded substrate of P. djamor, an activity that had not been reported previously.

Agaricus bisporus production on substrates pasteurized by self-heating.

The aim of this work was to determine if the self-heating pasteurization procedure is technically applicable to the cultivation of Agaricus bisporus. Firstly the substrates alone (corncob, Pangola grass and a mixture of both ingredients with wood shavings) were tested. Two supplementation trials were then undertaken using soybean, wheat bran, sheep manure, sesame seed, black bean and chia. Highest production values (BE = 176.3% and Y = 26.6 kg/m2) were obtained using a 9% supplement, with a formula consisting of 25% each of soybean, black bean, wheat bran and chia, added at spawning and at casing. These results were comparable to those obtained with the Phase II compost traditionally used for A. bisporus cultivation.