Increasing the vitamin D level of oyster mushrooms by UV light

Vitamin D is essential for the human body and mushrooms are one of the natural sources of it. Many research works are aimed atenhancing the vitamin D2 content of mushrooms with UV irradiation in order to increase their vitamin D2 level, by transforming their naturalergosterol content into vitamin D2. The subjects of most of these studies are different kind of post-harvest cultivated mushrooms. In ourexperiment biologically active, pre-harvest oyster mushrooms were treated in the growing room with UVB and UVC light. UVB and UVClamps (operating on 312 and 254 nm) and 6 time periods of irradiation (15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 min) were used. After three consecutive daysof treatments the yield were measured and samples were taken for vitamin D2 and ergosterol analysis. Data showed considerable increase(from 0,67 μg/g to 3,68 μg/g, f.w.) in vitamin D2 levels at every time period in case of both wavelengths