FATTY ACIDS AND VITAMIN COMPOSITION OF INDIGENOUS ISOLATES OF TERMITOMYCETES MICROCARPUS AND T. HEIMII . Johnsy. G*, Kaviyarasan. V

Nutritional value of foods plays an important role in human health. Many species of indigenous edible mushrooms in Kanyakumari district which form part of the traditional food i n the tribal peoples. The indigenous Termitomycetes species was collected from Keeriparai forest area in Western Ghats of Kanyakumari district , to evaluate the vitamin and fatty acid compositions. The people have to provide a balance diet containing essent ial food compounds. The analysis of the extracted lipids revealed that the major unsaturated fatty acids was linoleic acid, while the predominant saturated fatty acids was palmitic acid in both T. microcarpus and T. heimii . B group vitamins were the most a bundant vitamins in both samples analyzed . While vitamin D , vitamin E were the least with value of 0.3 and 0.14 mg/g and 0.08 and 0.13mg/g, respectively. Therefore, this valuable product that is often considered as an agricultural waste might be employed a s a rich source of nutrients in food industries. Keywords :