The Effectiveness of Pleurotus djamor and Pleurotus citrinopileatus in Reducing Heavy Metal Levels in Soil

Overview

Heavy metals contaminate a large portion of the world’s agricultural soil, consuming these heavy metals is known to harm reproductive health and has been linked to cause certain cancers. While there are natural ways to remove these heavy metals such as using microorganisms, there isn’t as much research for utilizing oyster mushrooms to do so. In this project, pink and gold oyster mushrooms were grown in substrate containing iron oxide and titanium dioxide to see if the mushrooms absorb any of the metals. Iron oxide powder was added to 2 bags with pink and 2 with yellow, titanium dioxide powder was added to 2 bags with pink and 2 with yellow, and 1 pink and 1 gold were left without any metals. For testing, 2 different methods were used. For titanium, a flame test was used, which indicated that the mushrooms didn’t absorb any titanium. For iron, water testing strips were used, which indicated that the mushrooms didn’t absorb any iron. Each mushroom was weighed, and the gold grew larger than the pink mushrooms. The hypothesis was: if pink and gold oyster mushrooms are grown in substrate containing iron oxide and titanium dioxide, then the mushrooms will absorb the metals because the mycelium will break down and absorb them. My hypothesis was not supported, as the tests didn’t indicate any absorbed metals in any of the mushrooms. In future studies, it will be helpful to use larger amounts of metals and use more professional equipment or different procedures for indicating the metals.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Environmental Engineering (Junior Division) · Entry J-11-40

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