The work compares the levels of amino acids in canned Pleurotus ostreatus and Agaricus bisporus mushrooms. Compared with A. bisporus, P. ostreatus contained significantly lower levels of ash, total nitrogen and protein nitrogen (by 17-40%), but 12% more total carbohydrates. Protein nitrogen constituted 87% of the total nitrogen in A. bisporus and 72% in P. ostreatus. The conversion factor from total nitrogen to protein was 3.45 in A. bisporus, 15% lower than in P. ostreatus. In both species, glutamine was the most abundant endogenous amino acid while leucine was the most abundant exogenous amino acid. The least abundant endogenous and exogenous amino acids were respectively glycine, and methionine and cysteine. When the results were expressed in terms of per 100 g of fresh matter, P. ostreatus contained significantly higher levels of arginine, tyrosine and valine than A. bisporus (by 14-21%), but lower levels of alanine, asparagine, glutamine, glycine, cysteine and histidine (by 5-38%). In terms of per 100 g of protein, P. ostreatus contained significantly higher levels of alanine, arginine, glycine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, threonine, tyrosine and valine (by 9-40%) than A. bisporus, but lower levels of asparagine, glutamine, proline and cysteine (by 5-37%). Compared with the FAO/WHO reference protein patterns, no limiting amino acids were found in either species. The EAA (Essential Amino Acid) index values for canned P. ostreatus were 11% higher than for canned A. bisporus.
