Influence of Culture Medium on the Composition of Water-soluble Polysaccharides in Ganoderma lucidum Fruit Body

Influence of culture medium on the composition of water-soluble polysaccharides in the Ganoderma lucidum fruit body was investigated using various kinds of pruned off branches as the medium. Total carbohydrate content of water-soluble polysaccharides obtained from the fruit body differed among them : persimmon (90.2 mg/10 g dry weight of fruit body), mulberry (49.8 mg), Japanese cherry (33.1 mg), Japanese plum (34.1 mg), apple (52.1 mg), Japanese oak (28.3 mg), and grape (28.4 mg). Neutral sugar composition and neutral-sugar linkage analyses indicated that galactan-like polysaccharide and xylan-like polysaccharide, in addition to beta-glucan, were present at different ratios in the water-soluble polysaccharide fractions. This means that the content of these polysaccharides in the fruit bodies is influenced by the culture medium, i.e., the kind of pruned off branch.