Antimicrobial Activity of Mushroom (Agaricus Bisporus) and Fungi (Trametes Gibbosa) Extracts from Mushrooms and Fungi of Egerton Main Campus, Njoro Kenya.

Abstract

Emergence of drug resistance pathogens has caught the attention of scientist due to the risk of going back to the pre-antimicrobial era. This study was carried out to investigate the antimicrobial properties of mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) and fungal (Trametes gibbosa) metabolites. Erwinia spp and Ralstonia solanacearum were isolated from infected plants and together with commercially acquired Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Streptococcus pneumoniae (ATCC 49617), Proteus vulgaris (ATCC 49990), Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger (ATCC 1015), Fusarium oxysporum (ATCC 16608), Ustilago maydis (ATCC 14826), Microsporum gypseum (ATCC 15621) and Malassezia furfur (ATCC 14423) subjected to antagonism by mushroom and fungal isolates. Results showed that mushroom and fungal metabolites inhibit growth of the tested pathogens. However, fungal metabolites did not inhibit growth of Gram positive bacteria. Although there was no significant difference in inhibition of the bacterial growth by mushroom extracts (P=0.09), fungal extracts significantly inhibited growth of bacteria (P=0.00001). There is need to conduct further studies to establish the chemical composition of these antimicrobials.