Ecofungi health

Grow edible mushrooms in agro-industrial waste to mitigate environmental impact and be marketed as nutraceuticals to prevent diseases such as obesity and hypertension.

Edible mushrooms such as Pleurotus ostreatus, Auricularia auricula-judae, and Ganoderma lucidum are white rot fungi that use residual plant biomass produced in crops such as coffee, rice, sugar cane, and palm oil to grow and reproduce from of these wastes, helping to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that are contributed by the agriculture sector and helping to improve health in populations with overweight and hypertension, this is because edible mushrooms are low in fat, they are rich in proteins, vitamins and antioxidants. From this, it contributes to the bioeconomy to efficiently manage the biomass of agro-industrial waste for the cultivation of edible mushrooms and also contributes to the circular economy with food products such as nutraceuticals that benefit human health.

Solution process:
1. Substrate: Collection of agro-industrial waste such as coffee grounds, sugarcane bagasse, rice husks and palm kernels.
2. Inoculation: The seed of the fungus is mixed with the substrate.
3. Incubation and fruiting: Period in which the fungus will grow in the substrate and the fruiting bodies will be seen. also with the help of the use of a bioreactor the biomass of the fungus can be obtained.
4. Harvest: Mushrooms are harvested
5. Packaging: Product presentations

Greenhouse gas emissions contribute strongly to climate change, each year around 34 billion tons of carbon dioxide are produced in the world; In agricultural countries like Colombia, 1.75 tons per capita are produced in the world. one of the polluting factors is found in the agriculture sector where the use of land for agricultural crops stands out, this sector represents 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Colombia stands out for its coffee, rice, sugar cane and oil palm crops. Coffee crops generate 92% of waste such as pulp that has no use. In rice crops, the husk is the main waste of this product. In the production of sugar cane, it is characterized by the production of panela in Colombia, this generates a residue called bagasse and finally we have the cultivation of palm where Colombia stands out as the first producer of palm oil in America, from this process a waste such as stone is generated. All these residues are rich in lignin and cellulose where they are considered residual plant biomass, in Colombia 43 million tons are produced per year and are not used to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The population is also affected by health problems such as obesity that can be a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, in Colombia 56% of young people and adults suffer from obesity, on the other hand high blood pressure is a disease silent where 9 out of 10 people suffer from it.

My solution serves farmers helping to enhance the bioeconomy and the circular economy with the implementation of their plant residues per crop for the growth of edible mushrooms, helping to reduce climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. It also works for people who are overweight and obese where 39% of people over 18 are overweight and 13% are obese in a total world population, on the other hand, children with the figure of 41 million children who are under 5 years of age who suffer from obesity and overweight, this can lead to hypertension where the most affected population is in the age range of 30-79 years, representing 1280 million people in recent years. Obesity is preventable and my solution helps reduce or prevent the impacts of this pathology such as hypertension, by implementing edible mushrooms in the diet where they are low in fat, rich in protein, vitamins and also contain biologically active molecules such as exopolysaccharides (beta-glucans) that are modulators of the immune system. It also has antioxidants and finally there is ergosterol, this molecule is important to reduce the concentrations of cholesterol in the blood and fatty acids (fat), thanks to this it can contribute to improve the health of these people and prevent these pathologies.

The steps taken are in the exhaustive bibliographic search of public health problems in Colombia and in the world, as well as data on greenhouse gas pollution and climate change caused by the agro-industrial sector. In a country as megadiverse as Colombia, only 2% of the species of fungi are known, currently there is no use of these fungi or of agro-industrial waste, so it is necessary to give a fundamental use to the residual plant biomass that are produced by agro-industrial crops; There is also a need to implement nutraceuticals (foods with pharmacological properties) such as edible mushrooms to diets for human consumption.

The solution takes into account two important components first is sustainability to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions provided by agribusiness and second has a health component by implementing edible mushrooms in the daily diet, as it is known many health benefits thanks to these mushrooms. With this, it was found that neither mushrooms nor agro-industrial residues are used, the need is to combine these two factors to counteract environmental problems and health problems such as obesity and hypertension.

Select the stage of the concept because fungi use as substrates materials that are rich in lignin and cellulose to grow, knowing the morphology and metabolism of these fungi thanks to the bibliography of the science of mycology it may be a viable idea to use these fungi so that they grow on agro-industrial waste and can be commercialized, this has not yet been implemented in the country.

Fungi are heterotrophic organisms that need other organisms to grow and reproduce, white rot fungi such as basidiomycetes are capable of secreting enzymes such as laccases, these enzymes are capable of degrading lignin and cellulases that degrade cellulose, both Enzymes are secreted by the mycelium (immature phase of the fungus) in order for the fungus to use these residues for its metabolism, growth and subsequent reproduction. The idea would be to implement these organisms in the degradation of plant residues of coffee, rice, sugar cane and palm oil crops that contain some percentage of lignin and cellulose in order to generate healthy and low-fat foods.

Currently my solution is not in operation, but my goal is that by next year around 1000 people such as farmers and people who suffer from obesity and cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension can reach, also adding people who take care of their health and want to prevent these pathologies to through the consumption of edible mushrooms.

My impact goals are:

1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.
2. Reach as many people as possible and encourage them to include edible mushrooms in their daily diet through different prescription guides or different presentations for their consumption, improving people's diet and health.
3. Propose the search and development of new drugs from the secondary metabolites provided by these fungi.
4. Lower rates of obesity and deaths from hypertension.

It is planned to measure the impact through the following aspects according to the objectives of the UN:

Goal 2 (indicators): Prevalence of undernutrition among children under 5 years of age due to overweight, volume of production per unit of work by size classes of agricultural enterprises, portion of agricultural area dedicated to productive and sustainable agriculture, agricultural orientation index for public expenditure.
Goal 3 (indicators): Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease.
Goal 12 (indicators): Material footprint, material footprint per capita, material footprint per GDP, internal material consumption, internal material consumption per capita, internal material consumption per GDP, national recycling rate, tons of recycled material.
Goal 13 (indicators): Total greenhouse gas emissions per year.

The main barrier is financing for the purchase of the necessary equipment for the growth of the fungus, acquisition of technology such as bioreactors and laboratory implements to obtain the seed of the fungus and thus maintain a sustainable production of the product.

My team is only made up of me, I am a pharmaceutical chemistry student who is in the 7th semester and throughout my career I have learned about fungi through subjects such as microbiology and molecular biology, it is a field that I like a lot, I have found that In my country the implementation of these organisms has been very little, being such a megadiverse country, that is why I became interested in this branch, to encourage and help people to understand that mushrooms can offer thousands of benefits for health and change climate.

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