Contents of sugars, free amino acids and free 5 '-nucleotides in mushrooms, Agaricus bisporus, during post-harvest storage

Common mushrooms, Agaricus bisporus (Lange) Imbach, were stored at 12 degre es C for 12 days and composition changes were examined during post-harvest storage. The contents of total sugars, mannitol and fructose decreased stea dily during storage, whereas the content of other reducing sugars, excludin g fructose, remained constant. The content of total free amino acids increa sed from 77.92 at day 0 to 140.57 g kg(-1) at day 6, and then slightly incr eased to 151.65 g kg(-1) at day 12. The contents of nine amino acids increa sed over time, of these glutamic acid was the most significant. The content of monosodium glutamate-like components increased from 22.67 at day 0 to 4 7.12 g kg(-1) at day 12. However, the contents of sweet and bitter componen ts increased comparably from 24.08 and 24.17 at day 0 to 47.15 and 50.75 g kg(-1) at day 12, respectively. Total 5'-nucleotide content peaked at day 3 . The contents of three flavour 5-nucleotides were high at days 3 and 6. (C ) 1999 Society of Chemical Industry.