Abstract
Oyster mushroom is a popular edible mushroom which has various colorful fruit bodies. The objective
of this study was to determine the antioxidant and the anticancer activities of oyster mushrooms (OM)
with different colors such as dark-grey strain (Pleurotus ostreatus), yellow strain (Pleurotus
cornucopiae), and pink strain (Pleurotus salmoneostramineus). The methanolic extracts from OMs
were prepared for this study. Among these OMs, the extract from the yellow strain showed the highest
radical scavenging activity, reducing power, ferrous chelating ability, and total phenolic contents.
Radical scavenging activity of yellow strain was about 3 times higher than that of dark-grey strain. On
the other hand, the extracts of dark-grey and pink strains showed higher suppressive effect against
growth of human colon cancer cell line HT-29 with survival rates of 39.9 and 40.7%, respectively, than
that of yellow strain. These results showed that the antioxidant and the anticancer activities of OMs
varied by the colors of fruit bodies.
Key words: Pleurotus species, oyster mushroom, antioxidant, anticancer.
