In the present study, an improved fluorometric assay based on aniline blue dye for the specific, accurate, and rapid quantification of 1,3-β-glucans in edible mushrooms was developed and fully validated. Furthermore, the improved method was successfully applied for the quantitative evaluation of water soluble 1,3-β-glucans extracted from Dictyophora indusiata by ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) with response surface methodology. Results showed that the improved method exhibited high specificity, accuracy, precision, repeatability, and stability, as well as a wide calibration range of 10-600 µg/mL (R2 > 99.9%). The maximum extraction yields of water soluble 1,3-β-glucans (1.20%) and total polysaccharides (5.41%) were achieved at the optimized extraction parameters as follows: ultrasound amplitude (56%), ultrasound extraction time (15 min), and ratio of liquid to raw material (22 mL/g). The results suggest that the improved fluorometric assay has great potential to be used as a routine method for the quantitative evaluation of 1,3-β-glucans in edible mushrooms and that the UAE method is effective for the extraction of 1,3-β-glucans from edible mushrooms.
Keywords: 1,3-β-glucans; Dictyophora indusiata; aniline blue; fluorometric assay; ultrasound-assisted extraction.