10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 5 Issue 4 2014 (October - December) Mushrooms have been used as food supplement from times immemorial not only for their nutritive value, but also for their medicinal properties. This investigation attempts to update the present cultivation status and project the future prospects of the oyster mushroom, lessThan i greaterThan Pleurotus ostreaus lessThan /i greaterThan for its biomedical potential. Comparative analysis of the yield and the chemical composition of clusters of lessThan i greaterThan Pleurotus ostreatus lessThan /i greaterThan were performed by cultivating them on three different substrates, viz, paddy straw, wheat straw and sugarcane waste (bagasses). Thereafter extrapolating the results to compare their biomedical potential by means of various spectrophotometric assays. The genetic variation among the clusters was studied using RAPD markers, OPAB18, OPAC19, OPAC13 by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and dendrogram analysis. The yield of lessThan i greaterThan Pleurotus lessThan /i greaterThan lessThan i greaterThan ostreatus lessThan /i greaterThan was seen to be comparable in case of paddy and wheat straw while for sugarcane waste it was almost 50% lower. Results correlated with the substrate degrading enzymes, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants and bioactive compounds. S.DATTA, S.SHYAM CHOUDHURI AND A.K.MITRA Pleurotus ostreatus, lignocellulosic substrates, antioxidant, secondary metabolites, enzymes, RAPD 882-894