Analysis and Evaluation of Nutritional Components in Stipe of Morchella esculenta

To explore the nutrition and application value of stipe from Morchella esculenta, the contents of amino acids, fatty acids, mineral elements, polysaccharide, total phenols, dietary fiber and vitamins from two varieties were determined and analyzed, and then compared with their pileus. The results showed that a total of 18 amino acids were detected, and the proportion of contents of 9 medicinal amino acids to total amino acid contents was more than 60%.The ratio of sweet and fresh taste amino acids to bitter taste amino acids was above 2.1. E/T was more than 40% and E/N was up to 70%, which were higher than FAO/WHO ideal protein standards. The stipes of M. echinacea No.4 and wild M. echinacea were rich in unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), the proportion of UFA to total fatty acids (TFA) were 79.19% and 63.62%, respectively, which was higher than that of their pileuses. Furthermore, the content of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) was significantly higher than that of monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), in which the major fatty acid was linoleic acid. In addition, the stipe was in abundance of mineral materials, especially K, P, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, etc. And its ratio of Zn/Fe and Zn/Cu were reasonable. Compared with pileus of M. esculenta, the contents of polysaccharide, total phenol and vitamin B₁ in stipe lightly decreased but remained in a high proportion. Moreover, polysaccharide of stipe accounted for above 50% of that of pileus, but the cost of stipe was only about 6% of the price of pileus. Therefore, the stipe of M. echinacea could be used as an economically suitable material for polysaccharide extraction. In conclusion, the stipe of M.echinacea had high nutritional and medicinal value, and it was worth further deep processing and comprehensive utilization.