Antifungal Basidiomycete Extracts with Phytosanitary Potential

Abstract

Excessive use of chemical fungicides continues to drive research towards biological alternatives, as natural products are enjoying increasing interest in many areas and have the potential to control biological agents that cause various diseases in agricultural crops. On the other hand, the biodiversity of Basidiomycetes fungi is well recognized as an untapped source of potential bioactive of natural origin, with original chemical and biological characteristics, having prospective activities of medical and biological interest. These macro-fungi are among the main biological agents used to fight against phy-topathogenic fungi. The present study was carried out to evaluate the anti-fungal activity of ethyle acetate extracts of 16 edible and no edible basidiomycetes. These mushrooms are: Lactarius zonarioides, Amanita proxima, A.virosa, Agaricus bisporus, Suillus mediterraneensis, Coprinus atramentari-us, Pleurotus pulmonarius, P. eryngi, P. dryinus, P. ostreatus, Lepiota sp., Cortinarius orellanus, Boletus sp., Xerocomus sp., Armillaria mellea, and Trametes quercina. Their phytosanitary potential was tested against three phytopathogenic fungi: Aspergillus niger; Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. albedinis and Verticillium dahliae Kleb. The chemical extraction by the apparatus Soxhlet was used to obtain ethyl acetate extracts from different basidiocarps, and the disc diffusion method was done in order to achieve antifungal activity. The results showed that; among the studied extracts; those of A. proxima, A. virosa, Xerocomus sp. and Trametes quercina have a potential antifungal activity compared with standard Fluconazol. These results clearly indicated that basidiomycete extracts are a reservoir of bioactive components of antimicrobial fungal metabolites, which could be used for the devel-opment of new agents against phytopathogenic fungi.