SBIR-STTR Award

Huerto Rico LLC is an agricultural startup located in Puerto Rico that specializes in the production of gourmet mushrooms for the local restaurant market with a special emphasis on research and development of new strains based on understudied tropical mushroom species. The team has identified six native species of Ganoderma spp.; one of which species has never been described in literature before. Reishi is the common name for mushrooms of the genus Ganoderma and is known as the 'mushroom of immortality' in Asia where it is documented to have been consumed for millennia (Hapuarachchi et al 2018 Azizi et al 2012). Although Ganoderma-based products are widely used worldwide natural supplements are a poorly regulated industry and several species are sold under the name "Reishi" (Zhou et al. 2011Hobbs 2017 Hapuarachchi et al 2018 Wu et al. 2017). The team's preliminary results show that not all Reishi are created equal and that knowing which species are being grown and theirchemical profile is important when making claims about the commercial and biological benefitsof these productsThe goals for this Phase I project are to: 1) develop improved cultivation methods by assessing suitable substrates for cultivation of Ganoderma tuberculosum Murrill Ganoderma aff. multipileum Ding Hou Ganoderma multiplicatum (Mont.) Pat. Ganoderma martinicense Welti& Courtec. Ganoderma subamboinense Henn. and the newly discovered endemic subgenus of Ganoderma puertorricencis. 2) Evaluate the biochemical profile and phytochemical content ofeach species and compare them to that of Ganoderma lucidum to assess their biological activity (e.g. antioxidant levels anticancer properties) and identify novel chemical structures that may increase the effectiveness and overall quality of Ganoderma natural products. The long-term goalof this proposal is to create a new agricultural product with improved biological properties based on neotropical Ganoderma subspecies which will help improve the overall quality of Ganoderma-based products grown and manufactured in the United States.