Food Chemistry 210 (2016) 129–134

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food Chemistry
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem

Effects of UV-C treatment and cold storage on ergosterol and vitamin D2

contents in different parts of white and brown mushroom (Agaricus
bisporus)
Wenqiang Guan a,⇑, Jie Zhang b, Ruixiang Yan c, Suqin Shao d,⇑, Ting Zhou d, Jing Lei a, Zhidong Wang b
a
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Food Biotechnology, College of Biotechology and Food Sciences, Tianjin University of Commerce, Tianjin 300134, China
b
Institute of Agro-products Processing Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture,
Beijing 100193, China
c
Tianjin Key Laboratory for Postharvest Physiology and Storage of Agricultural Products, National Engineering and Technology Research Center for Preservation of
Agricultural Products, Tianjin 300384, China
d
Guelph Food Research Centre, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, 93 Stone Road West, Guelph, Ontario N1G 5C9, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Effects of ultraviolet-C (UV-C) treatment (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 kJ/m2) and cold storage on ergosterol and vita-
Received 15 September 2015 min D2 content in different parts of white and brown button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) were inves-
Received in revised form 31 March 2016 tigated. UV-C treatment did not significantly affect ergosterol content in the caps and stems of the two
Accepted 12 April 2016
mushrooms, but ergosterol content increased significantly during 14 days cold storage. Vitamin D2 con-
Available online 13 April 2016
tent in the caps and stems of two mushrooms significantly increased as UV-C dose increased, and 2.0 kJ/
m2 UV-C showed the best result. During cold storage, vitamin D2 content in the caps of the two mush-
Keywords:
rooms decreased from day 1 to day 7, and then kept stable until day 14, but vitamin D2 content in the
Agaricus bisporus
UV-C treatment
stems of brown mushrooms kept increasing for the whole 14 days period. UV-C could increase vitamin
Ergosterol D2 contents in both caps and stems of white and brown mushrooms without significantly affecting ergos-
Vitamin D2 terol content.
Cold storage Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Piironen, 2000). Ergosterol content of mushrooms is between 0.6

In addition to the well-known knowledge that vitamin D plays a
vital role in mineralization of bones and regulation of calcium and
phosphorous in human body, previous research also demonstrated
other biological effects of vitamin D, such as a close relationship
with onset risk of mental illness, cancer, cardiovascular, infectious
and autoimmune diseases (Ko, Lee, Lee, & Park, 2008). Generally
vitamin D is obtained from sunlight synthesis in the skin and con-
sumption of vitamin D containing food. However due to inade-
quate exposure to sunlight or a strict diet, vitamin D deficiency is
a common problem in certain populations. Therefore, vitamin D
intake has attracted increasing interest in recent years, and con-
suming food rich in vitamin D has become more preferred (Wu &
Ahn, 2014). Vitamin D is not found naturally in many commonly
consumed foods. Vitamin D2 and its precursor ergosterol exist only
in the kingdom Fungi, and the edible fungi mushrooms are the
most important source for such compounds (Mattila, Suonpaa, &
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: gwq18@163.com (W. Guan), suqin.shao@agr.gc.ca (S. Shao).
and 0.7% of dried weight, whereas cultivated mushrooms are defi-
cient in vitamin D2 (Wu & Ahn, 2014). When mushrooms are
exposed to UV light (270–310 nm), ergosterol undergoes photoly-
sis and results in an increase in the amount of previtamin D2,
which rapidly isomerizes to vitamin D2 (Keegan, Lu, Bogusz,
Williams, & Holick, 2013). The bioavailability of vitamin D2 in
mushrooms via UV-B irradiation was effective in raising blood
levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a biomarker of a person’s vitamin
D status and not different to fortified food, vitamin D2 supplement
and pharmaceutical formulation (Keegan et al., 2013;
Koyyalamudi, Jeong, Song, Cho, & Pang, 2009; Krings & Berger,
2014; Urbain, Singler, Ihorst, Biesalski, & Bertz, 2011). Therefore,
vitamin D2 from UV-B exposed mushrooms was concluded to be
safe without evidence of toxicity (Calvo et al., 2013).
The UV technologies used by food industry includes UV-A (315–
400 nm), UV–B (280–320 nm) and UV-C (190–280 nm) (Koutchma,
Forney, & Moraru, 2009). UV-C has been applied to fresh produce
and it has been found that UV-C is effective in sterilizing the sur-
face of products (Escalona, Aguayo, Martínez-Hernández, & Artés,
2010). The sterilizing efficiency of UV-C was proved to be effective

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2016.04.023
0308-8146/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
130 W. Guan et al. / Food Chemistry 210 (2016) 129–134
on Agaricus bisporus during postharvest cold storage (Guan, Fan, &
Yan, 2012). Other benefit of UV-C treatment includes a shorter
treatment time and elicitation of beneficial hermetic response on
fresh produce during storage (Gilbert, 2007; Jiang, Jahangir, Jiang,
Lu, & Ying, 2010). Therefore UV-C may be more preferable for com-
mercial production. Although there are reports on the conversion
of ergosterol to vitamin D2 in mushrooms by UV light treatment,
most of them only examined the immediate change after the
treatments (Jasinghe & Perera, 2005; Krings & Berger, 2014;
Sapozhnikova, Byrdwell, Lobato, & Romig, 2014; Wittig, Krings, &
Berger, 2013). Cold storage or prolonged shelf life is highly relevant
to the real state of nutrition when mushrooms reach the consumer,
however the long term effect of UV light treatment on mushrooms
has not been examined. This study examined the effect of different
doses of UV-C treatment on vitamin D2 and ergosterol contents in
button mushrooms and also their content change during 14 days
storage at 4 °C. Changes of vitamin D2 and ergosterol contents in
different parts of brown and white button mushrooms were stud-
ied separately.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Mushrooms
Brown (Crimini) button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) were
harvested from Whitecrest Mushroom, Ltd. (Putnam, ON, Canada),
and white button mushrooms from Monaghan Mushroom Ltd.
(Campbellville, ON, Canada). Mushrooms were selected for uni-
form color, and size of caps (4.5–5.5 cm in diameter). Samples were
immediately transported to the laboratory at Guelph Food
Research Center, AAFC and irradiated by UV-C at room tempera-
ture within 12 h after harvest.
2.2. UV-C radiation, package, and storage
Low-pressure mercury (LPM) UV light reactor (R-52G MINERA-
LIGHTÒRUV Lamp, UVP, Inc., CA, USA) was used to deliver UV pho-
tons at 253.7 nm. The UV-C dose rate was determined by a digital
ILT1700 radiometer (International Light Technologies, MA, USA).
Mushrooms were placed on a holding tray positioned under the
UV-C light reactor with their caps facing towards the UV-C lamp
and irradiated (intensity at 0.10 m, 1.0 mW/m2) for 0, 50, 100
and 200 s, respectively. Afterwards, the mushroom material was
manually turned upside down so that the stems also received the
same doses of radiation. The radiation doses for each side (cap or
stem) of mushroom were 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 kJ/m2. Five mushrooms
were treated simultaneously in each replication. After treatment,
mushrooms were placed into a 17  15 cm plastic bags perforated
with 2 holes (6  10 3 m in dia.) and stored at 4 °C in the dark. At
day 1, 7 and 14 during storage, entire mushrooms were frozen in
liquid nitrogen and freeze dried by FreeZone Freeze Dry system
(Labconco, MO, USA). Mushroom caps and stems were manually
separated and ground into powder using a mortar and pestle.
The powder was stored in sealed plastic bags at 18 °C in the dark
until analysis. Each experiment was conducted independently 5
times (n = 5), and 120 packs of button mushroom were included
totally.
2.3. Sample preparation
Extraction of native ergosterol and vitamin D2 without parti-
tioning was conducted according to the simplified direct extraction
method of Shao, Hernandez, Kramer, Rinker, and Tsao (2010). In
this procedure, mushroom powder (0.2 g) was vortexed with
6 mL of hexane for 5 min at 1700 rpm/min (Heidolph Multi Reax,
Heidolph Instruments, D-91126 Schwabach, Germany), cen-
trifuged at 4000 rpm for 10 min, and the supernatant (hexane
phase) transferred into a vial. The mushroom residue was further
extracted twice with 6 mL of hexane. The hexane phases were then
collected and dried under a steam of nitrogen. The extract was dis-
solved in 10 mL of ethanol and filtered through a 0.45 lm PVDF fil-
ter before HPLC analysis.
2.4. HPLC analysis of ergosterol and vitamin D2
An HPLC system (Agilent Technologies 1100 Series, Palo Alto,
CA) equipped with a quaternary pump, an inline degasser, a ther-
mostatic autosampler, and a diode array detector (DAD) was used.
A Phenomenex Luna 5 lm C18 column (250  4.6 mm) with a C18
guard column (Torrance, CA, USA) was used for the separation. The
binary mobile phase consisted of solvent A (methanol/water, 80:20
v/v) and solvent B (methanol/dichloromethane, 75:25, v/v). The
program was as follows: 0–5 min, 50%–80% B; 5–15 min, 80–
100% B; 15–20.5 min, 50% B. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min, and
injection volume was 10 lL. The DAD collected data from 190 to
900 nm, and absorbance at 280 nm was used to monitor and quan-
tify ergosterol and vitamin D2. Ergosterol and vitamin D2 in mush-
rooms was identified by a combination of the retention time in
HPLC chromatograms and UV spectrum with standards.
2.5. Statistical analysis
The experiment was carried out using a completely randomized
design. Data Measurements and analysis were repeated in quintu-
plicate. The evaluation of statistical significance was determined
by one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and general linear model
(GLM) followed by Newman–Keuls test. Statistical analysis was
performed using SPSS 17.0 software.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of UV-C treatment on ergosterol content in different parts of
button mushrooms
The amount of ergosterol in different parts of brown and white
mushrooms before and after UV-C treatment is shown in Table 1.
UV-C treatment tended to reduce ergosterol contents in mush-
rooms, and the higher the UV-C dose, the more ergosterol content
reduced. For example, mushrooms treated with 2.0 kJ/m2 UV-C
showed a tendency of the lowest ergosterol content among the
treatments in both the stems and caps of the two mushrooms.
However, there was no significant difference among UV-C treat-
ments and control (P > 0.05). This finding is consistent with the
report of Teichmann, Dutta, Staffas, and Jagerstad (2007), who
found that UV-C irradiation for fresh white button mushrooms
resulted in no significant decrease in ergosterol content. However,
Sapozhnikova et al. (2014) observed an increased ergosterol con-
Table 1
Amount of ergosterol (mg/g dry weight) in different parts of button mushrooms with
UV-C treatment at different doses.
Treatment White button mushroom Brown button mushroom
Caps Stems Caps Stems
Control 6.12 ± 0.09a 5.20 ± 0.13a 7.59 ± 0.13a 7.56 ± 0.41a
0.5 kJ/m2 6.05 ± 0.37a 5.40 ± 0.29a 7.61 ± 0.61a 7.22 ± 0.41a
1.0 kJ/m2 6.11 ± 0.20a 5.25 ± 0.22a 7.64 ± 0.31a 7.35 ± 0.29a
2.0 kJ/m2 5.96 ± 0.16a 5.20 ± 0.18a 7.69 ± 0.19a 7.60 ± 0.18a
Note: the numbers are means ± standard deviations of means (n = 5), and means
followed by the same letter within same column are not significantly different
(P < 0.05).
 W. Guan et al. / Food Chemistry 210 (2016) 129–134
tent in UV-B treated button mushroom powder and significant
decrease in ergosterol concentrations in all other UV-B treated
mushroom powder types. Mau, Chen, and Yang (1998) also
reported that ergosterol content in Agaricus bitorquis, Lentinus edo-
des and Volvariella volvacea increased as UV-B and UV-C treatment
period prolonged.
3.2. Effect of cold storage on ergosterol content in different parts of UV-
C treated button mushrooms
Ergosterol contents in both the caps and stems of the two but-
ton mushrooms increased significantly (P < 0.001) with increasing
storage time (Table 2). The increasing rates were the same for sam-
ples with and without UV-C treatment, although the patterns are
different between the caps and the stems (Fig. 1). Mushroom caps
showed rapid increase in ergosterol content from day 1 to day 7,
and tended to plateau in late phase. For examples, in the samples
without UV-C treatment, ergosterol contents were 6.12, 7.01 and
7.02 mg/g dry weight (d.w.) in the caps of white mushrooms, and
7.59, 8.30 and 8.46 mg/g d.w. in the caps of brown mushrooms
at 1, 7 and 14 day, respectively. The stems showed increase in
ergosterol levels during the whole storage period. In the stems of
the same mushrooms without UV-C treatment, ergosterol contents
were 7.56, 8.60 and 10.51 mg/g d.w. in brown mushrooms, and
5.20, 6.50 and 7.74 mg/g d.w. in white mushrooms at 1, 7 and
14 day, respectively. Generally, ergosterol content in brown mush-
rooms is higher than in white mushrooms. This finding is consis-
tent with the report of Shao et al. (2010). The increasing amount
of ergosterol in mushrooms during storage indicated the viability
of the material and the biosynthesis of ergosterol was continuous
under the postharvest storage conditions we used (4 °C in the dark,
with relative humidity of about 95%–100%). Comparing the results
of caps and stems, it also implied that the stems of button mush-
rooms could be viable for a longer time than the caps during
post-harvest storage. UV-C could denature proteins and damage
DNA in living organisms and hence suppress the growth of
microorganisms, the dosages we used has been reported to be
effective for mushroom surface disinfection (Guan et al., 2012).
However, the comparison of ergosterol contents with and without
UV-C treatment showed that UV-C doses up to 2.0 kJ/m2 did not
affect the biosynthesis of ergosterol in mushrooms, indicating that
UV-C would not kill the material even at a surface disinfection
dose. This is especially important when using UV-C on fresh veg-
etables or fruits for surface disinfection. So far there are only lim-
ited reports on the effects of UV-C on the viability or biochemical
process of viable material during surface disinfection. This will
need more exploration as UV-C is gaining more acceptance across
the whole spectrum of food industries as a highly efficient, non-
chemical method of disinfection.
Table 2
Significance of UV-C treatment, storage time and interaction for ergosterol and vitamin D2 in the caps and stems of white and brown button mushrooms determined by general
linear model analysis.
Source of variation F values, Ergosterol
White mushroom cap
UV-C treatment 2.17NS
Storage period 49.79⁄⁄⁄
Interaction 0.28NS
Source of variation F values, Vitamin D2
White mushroom cap
⁄⁄⁄
UV-C treatment 52.81
Storage period 9.34⁄⁄⁄
Interaction 2.66⁄
Note: NS.⁄,⁄⁄,⁄⁄⁄ Non-significant or significant at P < 0.05, P < 0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively.
131
Our results also showed that in white button mushrooms ergos-
terol content was higher in the caps than in the stems at harvest,
but during storage much more ergosterol was synthesized in the
stems than in the caps. After 14 days storage, the concentration
of ergosterol in stems was higher than in the caps. In brown button
mushrooms, the caps and stems contained the same concentration
of ergosterol, and after 14 days storage, the concentration in the
stems was much higher than in the caps (Fig. 1). Tissue depen-
dence of natural products is common in living organisms and dif-
ferent part of mushrooms contained different amount of
ergosterol has been reported earlier (Jasinghe & Perera, 2005;
Shao et al., 2010). However, as far as we know this is the first report
on the different deposition pattern of ergosterol in different parts
of mushrooms during cold storage.
3.3. Effect of UV-C treatment on vitamin D2 content in different parts
of button mushrooms
The general trend for Vitamin D2 contents in different mush-
room parts is that significantly more vitamin D2 was found in the
UV-C treated samples (P < 0.05), and the higher the UV-C dose,
the greater the vitamin D2 content (Table 3).
Vitamin D2 was induced immediately by UV-C radiation and for
white button mushrooms its content in the caps was higher than in
the stems, but for brown button mushrooms its contents was lower
in the caps than in the stems. The increase is consistent with previ-
ous reports. For instance, the concentration of vitamin D2 increased
to 3.34 mg /100 g d.w., 1.01 mg /100 g d.w. after 0.0023 kJ/m2 and
0.38 kJ/m2 UV-C exposure, respectively (Jasinghe & Perera, 2006;
Teichmann et al., 2007). The concentration of vitamin D2 in button
mushrooms after UV-C treatment in this study was close to that in
button mushrooms treated with 10 and 20 kJ/m2 UV-B (0.848–
1.67 mg /100 g d.w.) (Ko et al., 2008) and higher than in those trea-
ted by 5–15 kJ/m2 UV-B (0.383 mg /100 g d.w.) (Roberts et al., 2008).
The fact that increase of vitamin D2 by UV-C radiation was dose-
dependent is thus proven in this and previous studies. UV-B radia-
tion has been shown to result in higher vitamin D2 conversion rate
in fresh common button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) than UV-C
(Mau et al., 1998), and could induce the highest vitamin D2 concen-
tration in shiitake, oyster, button and abalone mushrooms with 80%
moisture at 35 °C comparing to UV-A and UV-C (Jasinghe & Perera,
2006). Processing conditions (such as temperature and moisture
manipulation) have also been shown to play an important role in
vitamin D2 accumulation of mushrooms (Jasinghe & Perera, 2006;
Villares, Mateo-Vivaracho, García-Lafuente, & Guillamón, 2014).
Different morphology of mushroom tissues in relation to the orien-
tation of UV treatment can also significantly affect the conversion
rate of ergosterol to vitamin D2, and vitamin D2 concentration of
mushrooms exposed with gill was higher than that of pileus
White mushroom stem Brown mushroom cap Brown mushroom stem
1.02NS 0.59 NS 0.49 NS
122.62⁄⁄⁄ 29.61⁄⁄⁄ 62.57⁄⁄⁄
0.24NS 1.09 NS 0.91 NS
White mushroom stem Brown mushroom cap Brown mushroom stem
⁄⁄⁄ ⁄⁄⁄
30.95 12.14 16.59⁄⁄⁄
10.11⁄⁄⁄ 0.95 NS 67.42⁄⁄⁄
0.50NS 4.96⁄⁄⁄ 4.32⁄⁄⁄
132 W. Guan et al. / Food Chemistry 210 (2016) 129–134

7.5 8.5

Ergosterol content(mg/g d.w.)

Ergosterol content (mg/g .w.)

8.0
7.0 7.5
7.0
6.5
6.5
6.0
6.0
5.5
5.5 5.0
0 7 14 0 7 14
Storage time (d) Storage time (d)
Cap of white mushroom Stem of white mushroom

9.0 12.0
Ergosterol content (mg/g d.w.)

Ergosterol content (mg /g d.w)

11.0
8.5
10.0
8.0
9.0
7.5
8.0

7.0 7.0

6.5 6.0
0 7 14 0 7 14
Storage time (d)
Storage time (d)
Cap of brown mushroom Stem of brown mushroom

Fig. 1. Effect of UV-C treatment and cold storage on ergosterol contents in the caps and stems of button mushroom.

from 7.43 to 1.75 lg/g dry solids after 4 days of cold storage at
Table 3
Amount of vitamin D2 (mg /100 g d.w.) in different parts of button mushrooms with 2.2 °C. The trend of vitamin D2 degradation in the caps of the
different doses UV-C treatment. two mushrooms appears to correspond to the accumulation of
ergosterol at similar time frames, indicating a reversible reaction
Treatment White button mushroom Brown button mushroom
of vitamin D2 to ergosterol during cold dark storage. This reversible
Caps Stems Caps Stems
reaction in mushrooms has not been reported before and more
Control 0.79 ± 0.07a 0.66 ± 0.05a 0.43 ± 0.10a 0.56 ± 0.08a work will be needed to study the kinetics and find the best condi-
0.5 kJ/m2 0.92 ± 0.05b 0.89 ± 0.07b 0.70 ± 0.03b 0.76 ± 0.07ab tion to prevent this reaction in mushrooms during storage, since
1.0 kJ/m2 1.13 ± 0.06c 0.99 ± 0.09b 0.81 ± 0.11b 0.88 ± 0.11bc
2.0 kJ/m2 1.34 ± 0.12d 1.17 ± 0.17c 0.95 ± 0.06b 1.05 ± 0.03c
UV light induced vitamin D2 is preferred by consumers rather than
ergosterol.
Note: The numbers are means ± standard deviations of means (n = 5), and means Increase of vitamin D2 in UV irradiated mushrooms were gener-
followed by the same letter within same column are not significantly different
(P < 0.05).
ally attributed to the partly conversion of ergosterol (Jasinghe &
Perera, 2005; Koyyalamudi et al., 2009; Krings & Berger, 2014;
Mau et al., 1998; Simon, Phillips, Horst, & Munro, 2011). However,
(Jasinghe & Perera, 2006; Ko et al., 2008; Mau et al., 1998; Roberts the conversion and concentration of ergosterol in mushrooms after
et al., 2008). Because the gill of whole button mushroom was in UV treatment showed various results. Mau et al. (1998) reported
the cap and was not exposed to UV-C radiation, further research will that most of the ergosterol might be UV-degraded in button mush-
be needed to study the effect of UV-C on fresh cut button mush- rooms, whereas egosterol content in A. bitorquis, L. edodes and V.
rooms, which could possibly induce higher amount of vitamin D2. volvacea increased as UV-B and UV-C treatment period prolonged.
He concluded that vitamin D conversion in vivo was not as high as
3.4. Effect of cold storage on vitamin D2 content in different parts of expected with regard to the ergosterol content in mushrooms.
UV-C treated button mushrooms Jasinghe, Perera, and Sablani (2007) found the conversion of ergos-
terol to vitamin D2 was almost completed within an hour, whereas
UV-C treatment led to an increased contents of vitamin D2 in vitamin D2 kept increasing in 7 days. Teichmann et al. (2007) also
the caps and stems of button mushrooms significantly (P < 0.001) found that UV-C irradiation for fresh white button mushrooms
(Table 2). The amount of vitamin D2 showed a reducing tendency resulted in nonsignificant decrease in ergosterol content, whereas
during storage except for the brown button mushroom stems, in vitamin D2 increased up to 14-fold. Such findings may indicate that
which vitamin D2 contents kept increasing for the whole 14 days ergosterol may not be the limiting factor of vitamin D2 conversion
of storage (Fig. 2). The changing rate is the same for the same since previtamin D undergo several reversible photoreactions
mushroom tissue between the UV-C treated and untreated sam- when absorbing energy (between 240 and 320 nm) (Webb, Kline,
ples. Therefore vitamin D2 concentration was still higher in UV-C & Holick, 1988). This hypothesis requires further attention in par-
treated samples after storage. This trend is consistent with the ticular to determine whether there is a signal transduction of vita-
results of Roberts et al. (2008), who reported that vitamin D2 con- min D2 production and accumulation in different parts of
centration in 15 kJ/m2 UV-B treated button mushrooms decreased mushroom. At the same time, some mushrooms exposed to UV-B
 W. Guan et al. / Food Chemistry 210 (2016) 129–134 133

1.6 1.8

Vitamin D2 (mg/100g d.w.)

Vitamin D2 (mg/100g d.w.)

1.4
1.4
1.2
1.0 1.0

0.8
0.6
0.6
0.4 0.2
0 7 14 0 7 14
Storage time (y) Storage time (d)
Cap of white mushroom Stem of white mushroom

1.1 1.8

Vitamin D2 (mg/100g d.w.)

Vitamin D2 (mg/100g d.w.)

0.9 1.4

0.7 1.0

0.5 0.6

0.3 0.2
0 7 14 0 7 14
Storage time (d) Storage time (d)
Cap of brown mushroom Stem of brown mushroom)

Fig. 2. Effect of UV-C treatment and cold storage on vitamin D2 contents in the caps and stems of button mushroom.

radiation could also produce vitamin D3 and D4 (Keegan et al.,
2013; Krings & Berger, 2014), and Sapozhnikova et al. (2014)
reported that treatment with shorter wavelengths of light has been
shown to lead to predominance of tachysterol whereas longer
wavelengths increase lumisterol contents. Therefore, whether
UV-C radiation can raise other vitamin Ds is valuable for future
investigation, and more studies need to understand the changing
mechanism of ergosterol to vitamin D2 in UV-C treated
mushrooms.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, the results obtained in the present study clearly
indicated that UV-C treatment, compared to the control samples,
increased vitamin D2 levels in the caps and stems of both brown
and white button mushrooms. UVC-dose was positively correlated
with vitamin D2 concentration in the stems and caps of white and
brown mushrooms. UV-C treated mushrooms behaved the same as
untreated samples during cold storage in terms of ergosterol and
vitamin D2 content, thus the elevated vitamin D2 level was main-
tained during cold storage. These findings have a significant effect
in terms of post harvest handling of mushrooms and the potential
to add value to mushroom products during shelf and cold storage.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr. Rong Tsao, Xiuzhen Li, Ron-
ghua Liu, Huaizhi Liu and Ros Polski Valquiria for the technical
assistance and Professor Charles Brennan for critical reviewing
the manuscript. This research was supported by the National Nat-
ural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31271949), Tianjin
Municipal Project of Science and Technology (13ZCZDNC01500
and TD12-5049) and the financial support of China Academy of
Agricultural Sciences Innovation Project.
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