Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2005) 67: 357–363 DOI 10.1007/s00253-004-1861-6 BIOTECHNOLOG ICA LLY RELEVANT ENZYMES A ND PRO TEINS René Ullrich Le Mai Huong Nguyen Lan Dung Martin Hofrichter Laccase from the medicinal mushroom Agaricus blazei: production, purification and characterization Received: 18 October 2004 / Revised: 19 November 2004 / Accepted: 19 November 2004 / Published online: 13 January 2005 # Springer-Verlag 2005 Abstract The medicinal mushroom Agaricus blazei produced high amounts of laccase (up to 5,000 units l−1) in a complex, agitated liquid medium based on tomato juice, while only traces of the enzyme (