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Impact on Vitamin D2, Vitamin D4 and Agaritine in Agaricus bisporus Mushrooms after Artificial and Natural Solar UV Light Exposure

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Abstract

Commercial mushroom production can expose mushrooms post-harvest to UV light for purposes of vitamin D2 enrichment by converting the naturally occurring provitamin D2 (ergosterol). The objectives of the present study were to artificially simulate solar UV-B doses occurring naturally in Central Europe and to investigate vitamin D2 and vitamin D4 production in sliced Agaricus bisporus (button mushrooms) and to analyse and compare the agaritine content of naturally and artificially UV-irradiated mushrooms. Agaritine was measured for safety aspects even though there is no rationale for a link between UV light exposure and agaritine content. The artificial UV-B dose of 0.53 J/cm2 raised the vitamin D2 content to significantly (P < 0.001) higher levels of 67.1 ± 9.9 μg/g dry weight (DW) than sun exposure (3.9 ± 0.8 μg/g dry DW). We observed a positive correlation between vitamin D4 and vitamin D2 production (r2 = 0.96, P < 0.001) after artificial UV irradiation, with vitamin D4 levels ranging from 0 to 20.9 μg/g DW. The agaritine content varied widely but remained within normal ranges in all samples. Irrespective of the irradiation source, agaritine dropped dramatically in conjunction with all UV-B doses both artificial and natural solar, probably due to its known instability. The biological action of vitamin D from UV-exposed mushrooms reflects the activity of these two major vitamin D analogues (D2, D4). Vitamin D4 should be analysed and agaritine disregarded in future studies of UV-exposed mushrooms.

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Abbreviations

EPS:

Expanded polystyrene

EC:

European Commission

DW:

Dry weight

FW:

Fresh weight

HPLC:

High-performance liquid chromatography

IU:

International unit

OECD:

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

r:

Correlation coefficient

UTC:

Universal Time Coordinated

UV:

Ultraviolet

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to C. Cuerten for editorial assistance, to D. McConnon, A. Clancy and C. Beirne from Monaghan Mushrooms for their assistance on preparing samples for analysis and conducting analyses of agaritine, to I. Mayer and F. Meinhardt form the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection for receiving complete data of spectral irradiance, and to E. Maier, F. Jaeger and F. Lorenz from University Medical Center’s central kitchen for providing material for the experiments and storage of samples, and to K. Saliger for helping out with sample preparation.

Authors Contribution

P.U., study concept, study performance and statistical analysis; J.V., analytics, critical review; J.J., analytics, critical review; all authors interpreted the data, drafted the manuscript, saw and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine I, Section of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Medical Center – University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Paul Urbain

  2. Monaghan Mushrooms Ireland, Tyholland, Monaghan, Ireland

    Juan Valverde

  3. National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Søborg, Denmark

    Jette Jakobsen

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  1. Paul Urbain
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Urbain.

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Conflict of Interest

P.U. and J.J declare no conflict of interest. J.V. is an employee of Monaghan Mushrooms, which is a commercial mushroom producer and is interested in understanding the impact of sunlight exposure into the conversion of ergosterol into vitamin D2. The mushroom samples were blinded by P.U. before shipment to J.V. for agaritine analyses.

Funding/Support

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 613,977 (ODIN).

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Urbain, P., Valverde, J. & Jakobsen, J. Impact on Vitamin D2, Vitamin D4 and Agaritine in Agaricus bisporus Mushrooms after Artificial and Natural Solar UV Light Exposure. Plant Foods Hum Nutr 71, 314–321 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-016-0562-5

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