International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms

Evaluation of Antibacterial Potential of Two Species of Genus Agaricus L: Fr. (Agaricomycetideae) from India

SINOPSIS

The present study focuses on the assessment of the antibacterial potential of two species of genus Agaricus from India. Three strains of A. bisporus and two strains of A. bisporus were tested against six species of pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria. Antibacterial activity was detected in the culture filtrate of these two mushrooms but not in aqueous and organic solvent mycelial homogenates. Agaricus bitorquis ITCC 3619 inhibited in vitro growth of Bacillus subtilis, whereas A. bisporus ITCC 1924 proved to be antagonistic against Lactobacillus lactis and Bacillus subtilis. Other bacterial species were either weakly inhibited or not inhibited at all. The antibacterial property of A. bisporus ITCC 3619 was relatively stable at 100°C after 15 minutes of treatment, whereas no activity was exhibited by either of the strains at 121°C. It has been confirmed that the bioactive antibacterial compounds were secreted extracellularly. The mycelia free culture filtrate (MFCF) metabolites were extracted with ethyl acetate, and the crude extracts yielded low minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 2−4 mg/mL of solvent. Crude organic extracts were subjected to silica gel column chromatography. The antibacterial activity was detected in the eluted fractions of the column, and the purified fractions exhibited more activity than the crude extracts.