Evaluation of antifungal activity of extracts of wild fruiting bodies and cultured Basidiomycete macrofungi- Pleurotus sapidus and Pleurotus flabellatus on several azole-resistant Candida spp.
Pages : 5-10
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Abstract
Medicinal mushrooms are widely used as traditional medicinal ingredients for treatment of various diseases and related health problems. Most of the medicinal extracts from mushroom are different forms of polysaccharides which strengthens the immune system with little or no side effect. Pleurotus (Oyster mushroom) represent one of the world’s greatest untapped resources of nutritious food. Pleurotus are rich in protein, minerals, and vitamins, and they contain an abundance of essential amino acids. Two Pleurotus mushroom fruiting bodies as well as their cultured mycelium were subjected to extraction in different solvents. After a prescreening of various extracts, MICs of acetone and ethanol extracts of both was determined against several azole resistant Candia spp. The fruiting body and mycelial extracts were compared with regard to their effectiveness with the result that fruiting body extracts hold more potential than the later. This concludes that the Candida sp. which nowadays gaining resistance to the azoles, can thereby be tested for their susceptibility to the two Pleurotus spp. extracts which needs to be refined with reference to the different compounds in order to exploit their full potential. Another important point to be considered is that Pleurotus comes in the category of edible mushrooms thus the compounds extracted from the different fractions can be assumed to be nontoxic.
Key Words: Multidrug resistance, Candida spp. Macrofungi, Pleurotus spp.