Antimicrobial activities of some selected Nigerian mushrooms

Abstract

Methanolic extracts of five Nigerian mushrooms – Auricularia polytricha, Corilopsis occidentalis, Daldinia concentrica, Daedalea elegans and Tricholoma lobayensis were investigated for their antimicrobial activities using filter paper disc and hole diffusion methods. Bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris and Staphylococcus aureus were well inhibited by these mushroom extracts, while Pseudomonas aeruginosa was resistant to all the mushroom samples except Tricholoma lobayensis. The study on the antifungal effect of these mushroom extracts revealed that Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Candida albicans and Microsporum boulardii were either weakly inhibited or not inhibited at all. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranged between 1.25 and 9.00mg/ml for bacteria and between 10.50 and 17.50mg/ml for fungi. These results are discussed in relation to therapeutic value of the studied mushrooms.

African Journal of Biomedical Research Vol. 8(2) 2005: 83-87