The objective of this study was to evaluate free radical scavenging capacity of crude extracts
from forest basidiomycetous fungi, domestic zygomycetous fungi and marine ascomycetous fungi.
Lethal concentration values that kill 50% of the brine shrimps (LC
50) were determined from 19 fungal
extracts using brine shrimp test (BST). The LC
50 values of fungal extract ranged between 0.28–
40μg/ml. The basidiomycetous (
Lactarius volemoides
) was the most toxic fungi with LC
50 of 0.28μg/ml
while ascomycete
Pichia guilliermondii
showed the least toxicity with LC
50 of 40μg/ml. The
concentrations of eleven fungal extracts were further evaluated on their ability to scavenge free
radical using 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (α,α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl) (DPPH) as a dye reagent
for spectrophotometric assay at 517nm. The extract concentrations that decreased the initial DPPH
radical by 50% (EC
50) were determined. The EC
50 values ranged from 19–60.4μg/ml ascorbic acid
equivalents. Extracts from an edible but undomesticated basidiomycetous fungus isolated from
Miombo forest and identified as
Termitomyces microcarpus
showed the highest scavenging effect with
EC
50 at 19μg/ml while that from ascomycete
Candida tropicalis
showed the least EC
50 at 60.4μg/ml.
These results draw attention to wild undomesticated Miombo fungi as potential source of nutritional
supplements worth further investigation.
