Mushrooms are a regular component of the diet of many people around the world and historically have also been used medicinally. Recently there has been an increase in health products made from mushrooms, however there is a knowledge gap about how and why some of these products work. This study aimed to investigate how mushroom juice products, made commercially and in house, interact with both pathogenic and probiotic bacterial species. Viga Global, a small farming business, has produced some new A. bisporus mushroom extract products in the form of juices, and a powder. Two other juice products were also produced for this study, a juice made form A. bisporus store bought button variety mushrooms and a juice made from an Australian isolate of H. coralloides. To investigate shelf life and microbial population changes of the commercial product, the naturally occurring population in VIGA mushroom products was monitored over a 6 week period, by counting the viable microorganisms grown on 2 types of agar plates and by DNA analysis (for the Viga products). The DNA analysis was 16s V1-V3 rDNA, this allowed for an identification of the bacteria present in the juice and powder at fortnightly timepoints. Subsequent experiments were conducted to observe the effects of the juice on the growth of the bacteria. Several species of beneficial and pathogenic human intestinal bacteria, B. uniformis, P. copri A. muciniphila, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, S. enterica, S. flexneri, and S. aureus, were incubated with varying concentrations of the mushroom products. Results showed that all the tested juice products contained live microorganisms and that the population and diversity within the juice products changed over 6 weeks. Beneficial bacteria were able to survive and grow within the juice products. For most of the species, growth was reduced with the addition of mushroom products compared to a control broth, however some species showed elevated growth with the juices. Such as, this was observed for the P. copri with the H. coralloides juice at 30% concentration and the L. plantarum with the Viga A. bisporus juice at all tested concentrations. The Viga A. bisporus juice was found to be reduce growth of the pathogenic bacteria species and it was the only tested juice that was bactericidal. The other juices reduced pathogenic growth but were not bactericidal.
Investigation of microbial interactions with mushroom juice
Cavallaro, C. (Author). 2025
Western Sydney University thesis: Master's thesis