Bioremidiation Potential of Pleurotus Ostreatus (Jacquin; Fries) P. Kummer: A Case of Agro-Wastes in Umudike Abia State

Biodegradation of agricultural wastes that constitute major source of environmental hazards and pollution by Pleurotus ostreatus is of importance in bioremediation of plant organic residues. Different agro-wastes; saw dust (SD), sugarcane baggasse (SB) and maize stalk (MS) and in combination (SD+MS, SD+SB, SB+MS, SD+MS+SB), were used to investigate the polysaccharide degrading potentials of P. ostreatus at the Department of Plant Health Management, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia, Abia State. The fungus significantly (P<0.05) degraded the hemicelluloses, cellulose and lignin contents of the substrates though to varying degrees. The loss of polysaccharide content of the test substrates due to the fungus ranged as follows; hemicelluloses, from 20.64% with MS substrate to 48.92% with SB substrate; cellulose from 24.06% with SD substrate to 41.92% with SB substrate and lignin content from 4.01 % with MS substrate to 27.45% with SD substrate. The average delignification of the substrate polysaccharides by P. ostreatus was highest with SB substrate (37.86%), followed by SD+SB substrate (31.76%) and SD substrate (27.56%). This not only showed the ability of P. ostreatus to degrade agricultural wastes efficiently and grow at a wide range of substrates but also a potent organism capable of biodegrading and detoxifying a wide range of wastes and pollutants.