WILD INDEGENOUS MUSHROOMS AS A SOURCE OF FOOD FROM DIFFERENT FOREST DIVISIONS OF ODISHA
B. Ramya Sree
Department of Biotechnology, Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College, Tirupati
Jyothi M. Joy
Department of Pharmacognosy, Sree Vidyanikethan College of Pharmacy, Tirupati
As mushrooms are important constituent of forest ecosystem growing on the most abundant biomolecules of our biosphere i.e. cellulose. Now mushrooms including both edible and non edible are regarded as macro fungus with a distinctive fruiting body which can be epigeous or hypogeous and are large enough to be seen through naked eyes . Along with their contribution on nutritional and medicinal aspects, it has been a source of food for tribal poor and mycorrhizal partner with the forest trees. This paper sums up the occurrence, biodiversity of wild edible mushrooms in five forest divisions of Odisha including one biosphere reserve (Similipal Biosphere reserve) and two sanctuaries (Karlapat & Kotagarh).The soil parameters (pH, Organic C, N, P & K) of sampling sites were also analyzed for creating a better scope for in situ conservation of wild edible and medicinally important macro fungi. 12 popular wild edible mushrooms were highlighted which are collected by the tribal people as a food and as well as for their livelihood. As there are no reports of the survey earlier carried out in Odisha for determining the varieties of wild edible mushrooms being consumed by the tribal people, we made an approach to study the market price of different edible mushrooms and their local preferences.
4 , 3 , 2014
138 - 147