Bioprospecting of certain Mushrooms isolated from South Gujarat

Abstract

Gujarat was theoretically estimated to enshrine a considerable quantum of macrofungal diversity, which would be a precious resource if juditiously bioprospected. Ethnomedicinal practices that involve macrofungi was realized to be a robust platform for identifying potent species. In this regard data on the prevalent traditional practices entailing macrofungi in Dang and Jessore were documented and analyzed. The Dangs being the region with densest forest cover was realized to be inhabited with tribals who had rich myco-ethnomedicinal knowledge. A cluster of species used by these communities were analyzed further. They were segregated in to clusters addressing specific and general disease targets. Of those which had general uses as gastronomical and for convalescence, five were selected for nutritional proximate analysis. Lentinus sqqarosulus was found to be a potent contender for nutraceutical species or as a functional food. In the other cluster that had disease-specific applications a species was identified as potent by scoring them important activity and decisive indices. P. durissimus, the potent species, was further studied pharmacologically against a battery of immunomodulatory, antinflammatory, antioxidant and cytotoxicity assays. Since methanol extract (PdM) performed better than the water extract (PdW) it was fractionated in to ethyl acetate soluble (PdEs) and insoluble fractions (PdEi). Ethyl acetate soluble fraction was found to exert significant activity in the immunomodulatory, antiinflammatory, cytotoxic and antioxidant assays. PdW and PdM showed better stimulations for innate and adaptive immune response at 300 mg/kg respectively. In Eschericia coli induced bacteraemia model PdM alleviated mortality and showed greater inhibition of bacteraemia. PdEs played important role in enhancing adaptive immune response and showed significant in vivo proliferation of splenocytes and thymocytes, which may be related to increased IL-2 secretion. PdEs also afforded reversal of cyclophosphamide mediated immunosupression. In brine shrimp cytotoxicity assay, PdEs afforded very effective LC50 value in nanogram range and closely resembled with the activity of cyclophosphamide, podophyllotoxin and colchicine in extended lethality assay of brine shrimps (eLABS) devised by us.