Study of nutritional and antibacterial potential of some wild edible mushrooms from Gurguripal Ecoforest, West Bengal, India

Mushrooms are important natural resources concerning human health, nutrition and disease prevention. The present study was conducted for the exploitation of wild edible mushrooms of Gurguripal Ecoforest. The analysis of nutrients in Termitomyces heimii, Astraeus hygrometricus, Leueopaxilus sp., Amanita vaginata, Agaricus campestris, Russula delica, Schizophyllum commune, Pleurotus ostreatus and Cantharellus sp. on dry wt basis showed that these mushrooms were rich in proteins (20.4-38.3%) and carbohydrates (33.2-48.4%), while lipid contents were relatively low (0.8-6.2%). The fibre and ash contents ranged 2.0-18.6% and 2.3-14.9%, respectively. Antibacterial properties of mushroom extracts were studied against some human pathogens like Escherichia coli MTCC118, Shigella flexneri MTCC7061, Staphylococcus aureus MTCC96, Streptococcus faecalis MTCC5383, Salmonella typhi MTCC734, Klebsiella pneumoniae MTCC109, Enterobacter aerogenes MTCC111, Vibrio cholerae MTCC3906, Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC741 and Bacillus subtilis MTCC441. Acetone extracts of P. ostreatus and T heimii showed noticeable antibacterial potentialities against S. aureus and K pneumoniae, respectively. Biosynthesis of nanoparticles using mushroom extracts was performed to increase the effectiveness of antibacterial potentials. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized using extracts of Volvariella volvacea and applied against E. coli and S. flexneri, which showed inhibition zones of 15 and 18 mm respectively. The silver nanoparticles were also characterized through UV-Visible spectroscopy and FTIR analysis.