On September 5, in one of mushroom bases in Taiqian County, Puyang City, Henan Province of China, Button mushrooms are revealing desirable growth trend, and marketing time is upcoming.

“Button mushrooms are hailed as “The King Ingredient in Vegetarian Diet” by virtues of high nutritional value and good taste. In 2018, gross cultivation area on Button mushroom reaches 200,000 square meters in Taiqian County,” introduces principal of the base friendly, going on that now,

Button mushrooms produced in the base hold the market price of 6-8 CNY per kg, in accordance with the present production status, the estimated gross output on fresh Button mushroom could reach 2.5 million kg.

On September 4, Morel mushrooms cultivated in Chongqing Puzhuo Agricultural Development Co., LTD are showing good growth tendency while staffs are orderly engaged with the picking and drying work. “With the investment of over 4 million CNY, our company is building a processing factory that occupies 1200 square meters and the estimated completion time is in late October,” introduces Mr. Zeng Fanping, general manager of Puzhuo Company warmly.

Founded in November, 2015, Chongqing Puzhuo Agricultural Development Co., LTD is a modernized agriculture enterprise which sets R&D, cultivation, processing and marketing of Morel mushroom into one. Over the years, Morel mushroom industy has been leading quick development speed in Chongqing City of China, however, unsound drying equipment restricts the further expansion of local Morel mushoom industry.

Now, Puzhuo Company absorbs strain factory of Morel mushroom that occupies 6000 square meters, Morel base that takes up over 1000 mu, of which steel-frame greenhouses cover over 500 mu of area. With the mu fresh output of 150 kg and market price of 200 CNY per kg, sales incomes in each mu attain over 30,000 CNY. Morel mushroom products developed by the company are not only sold well in Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan Province of China, but also enjoy favorable markets in Europe and other oversea nations.

In recent years, Xiyang County, Shanxi Province of China has been going to great lengths to build itself into The Great Mushroom County, by now, a series of varieties such as Button, Shiitake, Oyster, Chestnut mushroom, Black fungus, Morel mushroom and Agaric Polyporus have been developed within the county.

In Xiyang County, area for Button mushroom growing totals 1.2 million square meters. On August 22, a batch of Button mushroom products were exported to Thailand from the county, which realizes Zero Breakthrough in export and import trade.

In order to ensure the smooth development of mushroom industry, Xiyang County positively pushes the quality and safety supervision, and accelerates the construction of export quality demonstration area. In the meantime of improving the system construction of export quality and safety, the county also seeks cooperation with 66 cooperatives engaging in spawn production and ensures the quality of spawn from the origin. Besides, up to now, Xiyang County has built 71 refrigerators, 30 washing-up sinks, 8 boiling houses and 4 drying factories in a bid to extend the sales time of fresh mushroom and broaden marketing channels.

By now, mushroom growing has been spread to over 11 villages and towns totalling 810 households within Xiyang County, gross area totals 1.02 million square meters. And, annual output on fresh mushroom comes to 15,000 tons, annual output value hits 120 million CNY while over 5000 farmers are leaded to embark on the industry and generate satisfactory revenues.

Eating white button mushrooms can create subtle shifts in the microbial community in the gut, which could improve the regulation of glucose in the liver, according to a team of researchers. They also suggest that better understanding this connection between mushrooms and gut microbes in mice could one day pave the way for new diabetes treatments and prevention strategies for people.

In the study, the researchers showed that feeding white button mushrooms to mice changed the composition of gut microbes -- microbiota -- to produce more short chain fatty acids, specifically propionate from succinate, according to Margherita T. Cantorna, Distinguished Professor of Molecular Immunology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Previous research has shown that succinate and propionate can change the expression of genes needed to manage glucose production, she said.

"Managing glucose better has implications for diabetes, as well as other metabolic diseases," said Cantorna.

Normally glucose is provided from the food people eat. Insulin moves glucose out of the blood and into the cells. Diabetes occurs when either there is not enough insulin or the insulin that is made is not effective, resulting in high blood glucose levels.

Diabetes and pre-diabetes contribute to severe life threatening diseases including heart disease and stroke. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 100 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes in 2017.

The researchers, who reported their findings in a recent issue of the Journal of Functional Foods, available online now, used two types of mice in the study. One group of mice had microbiota, the other group did not have microbiota and were germ-free mice.

"You can compare the mice with the microbiota with the germ-free mice to get an idea of the contributions of the microbiota," said Cantorna. "There were big differences in the kinds of metabolites we found in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as in the liver and serum, of the animals fed mushrooms that had microbiota than the ones that didn't."

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