Breaking the spores of the fungus Ganoderma lucidum by supercritical CO2

The hard sporoderm of Ganoderma lucidum spores prevents the release of bioactive components such as polysaccharides which have significant anti-tumour activity. In the present study, supercritical carbon dioxide (SC–CO2) was used for the sporoderm breaking of G. lucidum spores, and polysaccharides were subsequently extracted and determined for evaluating the performances of SC–CO2. The operating parameters were optimized by orthogonal array design (OAD), and the morphological status of sporoderm was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The optimum operating conditions for SC–CO2 breaking of sporoderm were as follows: pressure 35 MPa, temperature 25 °C, time 4 h, and CO2 flow rate 10 kg/h. After SC–CO2 processing, the extraction yield of polysaccharides reached 2.98%, which was 3-fold to that of the intact ones (0.94%). This method is fast, efficient and advanced enough to break the hard sporoderm of G. lucidum, which may provide a scientific reference for the large-scale processing of spores in the pharmaceutical and food industries.