Pleurotus ostreatus, a white rot fungus, is capable of bioremediating a wide range of organic contaminants including Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). Ergosterol is produced by living fungal biomass and used as a measure of fungal biomass. The fi rst part of this work deals with the extraction and quantifi cation of PAHs from contaminated sediments by Lipid Extraction Method (LEM). The second part consists of the development of a novel extraction method, Ergosterol Extraction Method

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... , quantifi cation and bioremediation. The novelty of this method is the simultaneous extraction and quantifi cation of two different types of compounds, sterol (ergosterol) and PAHs and is more effi cient than LEM. EEM has been successful in extracting ergosterol from the fungus grown on barley in the concentration range of 17.5-39.94 μg g -1 ergosterol and the PAHs are much more quantifi ed in numbers and amounts as compared to LEM. In addition, cholesterol usually found in animals, has also been detected in the fungus, P. ostreatus at easily detectable levels, which is a noteworthy point.