original (2006)

FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Mushroom Council Collaborate to Optimize the Natural Vitamin D Content of Edible Mushrooms and to Examine their Health Benefits in Different Rodent Models of Innate Immunity.

M. Calvo1 , L. H. Garthoff1 , R. B. Raybourne1 , U. S. Babu1 , C. Kelly2 , S. Lodder2 , M. J. Feeney2 , B. Minor2 , D. Beyer3 , R. Beelman3 , J. Pecchia3 , K. Paley3 , N. Chikthimmah3 , P. Mattila4 , 1CFSAN, Laurel, MD 20708, 2Mushroom Council, Dublin, CA 94568, 3The Mushroom Research Center, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, 4MTT Agrifood Research, Finland

Background: In response to the Mushroom Council's 2004 call for proposals examining the ability of edible mushrooms to boost innate immunity, CFSAN scientists proposed to optimize vitamin D content of edible mushrooms through exposure to sunlight (UVB) and to test their ability to increase disease resistance, regulation of immune response and mammary tumor development in rodents. Vitamin D's emerging role in the prevention of chronic diseases such as cancer and in the regulation of immune response has incited the need for more vitamin D rich foods. Funding this proposal created the need for a pilot study to demonstrate feasibility of exposing mushrooms to short periods of UVB to produce an optimal level of vitamin D in a normal serving size of mushrooms (84 g).

Method: We examined the influence of UVB light on mushrooms during growing, harvesting and post-harvesting phases. Dr. Pirjo Mattila of MTT Agrifood Research in Finland analyzed the amount of vitamin D2 in samples with different light exposure times using straight-phase HPLC followed with vitamin D2 quantification by reverse-phase HPLC.

Results: A standard serving size of white button mushrooms exposed post-harvest to UVB for 5 minutes contained 86.9 181;g ( 3476 IU) vitamin D2 or869% of the Daily Value (10181;g ).

Conclusions: Exposure of white button mushrooms post-harvest to as little as 5 minutes of UVB light produce a significant quantity of vitamin D2. This inexpensive process could provide a significant, unique plant source of vitamin D for vegetarians and individuals who do not drink milk, the major fortified food source.