Cultivation ofPleurotus florida mushroom on rice straw and biogas production from the spent straw.

Rice straw, used as a substrate for three successive crops of the fruiting bodies ofPleurotus florida having 22% protein, had less cellulose but more nitrogen and ash than the original straw.In vitro digestibility using bacterial cellulase released 4.3-fold more reducing sugars per g cellulose from spent straw than from plain straw. There was 8-fold increase in biogas production from the spent straw compared with the original when used either in 3∶1 (w/w) or 1∶1 (w/w) combination with cattle dung.