eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2015-10-08 3 8 478 482 10.12691/jfnr-3-8-1 JFNR2015381 article Irina A. Kadnikova 1 2 Rui Costa ruicosta@esac.pt 3 Tatiana K. Kalenik 3 Olga N. Guruleva 3 Shi Yanguo 4 Far Eastern Federal University, School of Biomedicine, FEFU Campus, Russian Island, Vladivostok, Russian Federation Research Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society (CERNAS), College of Agriculture of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Bencanta, Portugal Key Laboratory of Food Science and Engineering, College of Food Engineering, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin, China Chemical composition of Auricularia auricula-judae fungus, used as a raw material for producing therapeutic and medicinal agents and as a food material has not been reported yet. Main components of this cultivated fungus (ash, protein, fat, total carbohydrate), water-soluble polysaccharide, cellulose, chitin, pectin, uronic acids, amino acid and mineral element contents, as well as neutral sugar composition were determined. This fungus contains 3.6% of ash, 12.5% of protein, 1.7% of fat and a large amount of carbohydrates (66.1%) per dry matter. Gas-liquid chromatography demonstrated the following monosaccharide composition of dry biomass: glucose (15.0%), mannose (10.7%), xylose (1.5%), galactose (0.6%). A. auricula-judae was shown to be a good source of almost all essential amino acids (34.7% of total) as compared to plant proteins, with the umami taste aminoacids present in content typical of mushrooms (25%). Its average calorific value is 327.7 kcal/100 g of dry matter. Results showed this fungus is a good source of healthy nutrients. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/3/8/1/jfnr-3-8-1.pdf amino acids calorific value mineral elements polysaccharides soluble sugars