Mushrooms in everyday life: Part 2

 Mycoremediation is the term used to describe the use of fungi to replenish or repair various aspects of the environment and it has the potential to become the solution to many of our environmental problems. Mycoremediation has been successfully used to clean up oil spills from soil and myco-materials have been developed that can aid us in cleaning oil spills over the oceans as well. Mycelium have the capability to break down hydrocarbons and absorb them and a variety of chemicals like heavy metals etc. There are many promising studies about the applications of mushrooms with regards to the environment and one of the stars in many a study is the common oyster mushroom. Mycelium of oyster mushrooms have been used to develop materials that can help clean water and get rid of contaminants.

Let us continue our journey into the mycoverse and look at some more uses of mushrooms in everyday life and the potential impact that fungi and mushrooms could have on our world. There are many exciting new applications of fungi that we have barely even scratched the surface of so without further ado let us look at some more interesting applications of mushrooms.

1. Pest Management: Mushrooms and fungi have been successfully used to fight pests by farmers across the world. There are several species of entomopathogenic fungi that have been used to control agricultural pests, they usually infect and kill insects by entering the host insects’ body and then taking control over its central nervous system. Beauveria bassiana and Cordyceps fumosorosea are two such entomopathogenic fungi that are used as a biopesticide to control pests like bed bugs, termites, whiteflies, aphids to name a few. Such biopesticides are highly effective in getting rid of pest populations without causing any adverse effects to the environment.
2. Cleaning up oil spills: Fungi have been successfully used in cleaning up oil spills both from water and soil. Oyster mushroom mycelium has been used to clean up land that has a high amount of oil in the soil. The unique ability of mushrooms to break down hydrocarbons and bind even heavy metals to their chemical structure has allowed for their use in cleaning up the environment in a unique manner. Mushrooms could potentially also be used to clean up and revive soil in places where the land is barren and fallow. They can also be used in agricultural processes to clean up soil for cultivation etc. Oyster mushrooms have been used to clean up oil spills in Europe and South America successfully.
3. Fight against plastic pollution: Mushrooms can potentially become our biggest weapon in the war against plastic use. Mycomaterials have been fabricated that resemble plastic but that is not what we are talking about, there are several studies and projects even in our part of the world where mycelium has been used to aid in the breakdown of plastics. A lot of studies have successfully used mycelium and fungi and were able to break down microplastics even from various media like soil and water. A plastic eating mushroom has also been recorded in the Amazon Jungle in South America which could very well be our ace in the fight against plastic pollution.

Mushrooms are amazing, the transformative properties of mushrooms make them indispensable in the coming times for our health and our overall existence on this planet. The vast potential for use of mushrooms in various aspects of life and the ongoing researches are a clear sign that they are here to stay. Our effort with Mushrooms of Sikkim has been to raise awareness among the public about the impact that fungi and mushrooms can have on their life.