Screening of medicinal higher Basidiomycetes mushrooms from Turkey for lovastatin production

As a first attempt, a study was carried out to test for lovastatin production ability in local higher Basidiomycetes mushroom isolates from Turkey. An extended screening was performed for lovastatin production in yeast lactose agar medium, among a total of 136 macrofungi isolates from the Basidiomycetes Culture Collection of Eskisehir Osmangazi University. Lovastatin production was evaluated by disc diffusion method and was also confirmed by TLC and HPLC. Only six isolates were found to be lovastatin producers. The highest production of lovastatin was obtained from the extracts from Omphalotus olearius OBCC 2002 and Pleurotus ostreatus OBCC 1031. The lovastatin amount produced by commercial strains, Aspergillus terreus NRRL 255 (7.0 mg/L) and Penicillium citrinum NRRL 1841 (7.0 mg/L), was nearly comparable to the amount produced by Pleurotus ostreatus OBCC 1031 (5.8 mg/L) and Omphalotus olearius OBCC 2002 (4 mg/L).