PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF AROMA PRODUCED BY SUBMERGED CULTURE OF MOREL MUSHROOM MYCELIUM

Among the edible mushrooms, the genus Morchella presents the advantage to produce pleasant odorous substances by mycelial biomass as well as by fruiting bodies. Three morel mushroom mycelium were grown in subme rged culture in order to approach the optimal conditions for biomass a nd aroma production. Succession of odorous substances, as fruity, wood y-nusty and flowery notes were expressed during incubation on malt ext ract broth. Sniffing evaluation allowed to select Morchella crassipes for further cultivation on ammonium-glucose basal medium and ammonium- glucose malt extract medium and aroma production. Samples of mycelial biomass and fresh or rehydrated fruiting bodies were extracted by dist illation-extraction with methylene chloride as solvent. The extracts o btained were concentrated under nitrogen flux and analysed by gas chro matography. In parallel, an excess load of 5 standard aromatic molecul es supposed to be contained in the mushroom extracts were added to the samples before analysis. Chromatographic profiles analysis show that similarities between mycelium extracts are higher than between myceliu m and fruiting bodies extracts. They also reveal the losses of many mo lecules for the extracts of rehydrated material, indicated by the abse nce of many peaks with low retention time. 1-octen,3-ol amounts are sh own to be higher in mycelium than in fruiting bodies.