Supporting Information

Uncovering the mechanical, thermal, and chemical characteristics of

biodegradable mushroom leather with intrinsic antifungal and antibacterial
properties
Jenniffer Bustillos1, Archana Loganathan1, Richa Agrawal1, Brittany A. Gonzalez2, Marcos
Gonzalez Perez2, Sharan Ramaswamy2, Benjamin Boesl1, Arvind Agarwal1,*
1Plasma Forming Laboratory
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33174

2Department of Biomedical Engineering

Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33174
*Corresponding Author: agarwala@fiu.edu

SV1 Supporting Video 1 Development of strain contours in the mushroom leather under uniaxial
tensile stress.
SV2 Supporting Video 2 Fracture mechanism (alignment – tensing of fibers – fracture) of the
mushroom leather captured by a high-speed camera at 2000 frames per second.

Fungal characterization was performed based on a comparison of intensities in the stains. Figure
S1 demonstrates the image analysis performed in a positive control specimen, the static control
and mushroom bio-leather media. The intensity values of the cell wall/glycogen are 0.2415, 0
and 0 for the positive control, mean static media and mean mushroom bio-leather media,
respectively, while the intensity values of the background stain were: 0.2947 (n=1), 0.4604 ±
0.05 (n=4) and 0.3902 ± 0.02 (n=4), respectively. Note that the positive control was provided
with the histological staining kit (PAS/Light Green Stain Kit, Newcomer Supply, Middleton,
USA).

S1
Figure S1. Fungal staining intensity of (a-c) cell wall/glycogen and (d-f) background stain on
a (a, d) positive control, (b, e) mean static media and (c, f) mean mushroom bio-leather media
with no statistical difference between the static and mushroom bio-leather media (p>0.05).
In a similar manner, Figure S2 depicts the intensity analysis for the determination of gram +/-
bacterial presence in the static control and mushroom bio-leather media. The intensity values for
the mean static media and mean mushroom bio-leather media were found to be 0.3412 ± 0.03 and
0.3872 ± 0.01, respectively. No presence of bacteria for 16 days with no significant difference
(p>0.05) between the two groups were seen.

Figure S2. Bacterial staining mean intensity of gram (+) and gram (-) on (a) static and (b)
mushroom bio-leather media.

S2