Antimicrobial activities of some mushrooms in Turkey

Context: 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. Objective: The powdered fruit bodies of T. boudieri, A. brunnescens and L. vellereus were used to evaluate the antimicrobial activities. Materials and methods: 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. Results: The strongest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value observed against the test microorganisms was with the chloroform extract of T. boudieri (MIC 2.4 mu g/mL) against Streptococcus pyogenes. Maximum antimicrobial effects were observed with the acetone extracts of T. boudieri and L. vellereus (MIC 4.8 mu g/mL) against Bacillus subtilis. The strongest antifungal activity was observed with the acetone extracts of T. boudieri (MIC 2.4 mu g/mL) and A. brunnescens (MIC 19.5 mu g/mL) against Candida albicans. The strongest MIC values for all fungal extracts were observed between 78 and 2.4 mu g/mL. Discussion and conclusion: 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.