Antimicrobial activities of some mushrooms in Turkey

Terfezia boudieri Chatin (Pezizaceae), Agaricus brunnescens Peck (Agaricaceae) and Lactarius vellereus (Fr.) Fr. (Russulaceae) are well-known species in Turkey, and are used both for food and traditional medicine.

The powdered fruit bodies of T. boudieri, A. brunnescens and L. vellereus were used to evaluate the antimicrobial activities.

Chloroform, acetone and methanol extracts of T. boudieri, A. brunnescens and L. vellereus were tested for their antimicrobial activities against four Gram-positive bacteria, five Gram-negative bacteria and yeast using a micro-dilution method.

The strongest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value observed against the test microorganisms was with the chloroform extract of T. boudieri (MIC 2.4 µg/mL) against Streptococcus pyogenes. Maximum antimicrobial effects were observed with the acetone extracts of T. boudieri and L. vellereus (MIC 4.8 µg/mL) against Bacillus subtilis. The strongest antifungal activity was observed with the acetone extracts of T. boudieri (MIC 2.4 µg/mL) and A. brunnescens (MIC 19.5 µg/mL) against Candida albicans. The strongest MIC values for all fungal extracts were observed between 78 and 2.4 µg/mL.

Present results demonstrated that these three mushroom species have excellent antimicrobial and antifungal activities, and thus have great potential as a source for natural health products.