The new variety, "monkey head mushroom", is medicinally important mushroom reported to inhibit the growth of various kinds of cancers, Directorate of Mushroom Research (DMR) in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, said.
"We would soon go in for pharmaceutical evaluation of the new variety and then subsequently commercialise it," DMR Director Manjit Singh told PTI.
He said DMR successfully cultivated the mushroom on autoclaved wheat straw (fruiting temperature 20-25 degree celsius) a few months ago, using indigenous tissue culture from a mushroom fruit body collected during surveys.
Mushroom production has increased from 10,000 tonnes to one lakh tonnes in India in the last two decades, Singh said.
He added that India produces a huge pile (about 600 million tonnes) of agricultural waste that can be effectively used for cultivating different mushrooms.
DMR said the development will also pave the way for commercialisation of oyster mushroom cultivation.
Mushroom is a nutritious vegetable with high content of protein, Vitamin B12, folic acid, lysine and typtophan amino acids and a natural source of Vitamin D.
The Directorate works under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which is an autonomous organisation under the Agriculture ministry.