Contents of Free Amino Acids in Mushrooms

Abstract

The fruit bodies of 113 kinds of mushrooms were examined by amino acid analyzer to determine 20 free types of protein amino acids and 11 non-protein amino acids. (1) Though considerable difference was often found among species of mushroom, the average of total free amino acids was 213μ mol/g dry matter. (2) It was found that the amount of alanine, glutamic acid and glutamine was very high and they were the dominant amino acids in the free amino acid pool. (3) Contents of non-protein amino acids were commonly low, but ornithine, γ-amino-n-butyric acid and cystathionine were proved to be widely distributed in the mushrooms. (4) So far as the present survey could determine, there seems to be no obvious correlation between the free amino acid pool and taxonomic groups of mushrooms.