Non-volatile taste components of several speciality mushrooms

Four speciality mushrooms are commercially available in Taiwan, including D ictyophora indusiata (basket stinkhorn), Grifola frondosa (maitake), Herici um erinaceus (lion's mane), and Tricholoma giganteum (white matsutake). Pro tein contents ranged from 14.6 to 22.3%. Carbohydrate contents were high in basket stinkhorn and white matsutake (67.0 and 70.1%) and low in maitake a nd lion's mane (58.8 and 57.2%, respectively). Contents of total soluble su gars showed two distinct levels, white matsutake (349 mg g-l) and other mus hrooms (153-188 mg g(-1)). Total free amino acid contents ranged from 7.41 to 12.3 mg g(-1). Contents of monosodium glutamate-like components ranged f rom 0.68 to 1.09 mg g(-1). Contents of flavor 5'-nucleotides were high in w hite matsutake, moderate in basket stinkhorn, and low in lion's mane and ma itake. In this study, the four speciality mushrooms, in addition to their c haracteristic appearances, were distinctly different in both their proximat e compositions and their taste components. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.