Incidence of post-harvest disease and airborne fungal spores in a vegetable market

The sampling of bioaerosols has been carried out using a Rotorod sampler as well as by exposing culture plates. The screening of some common vegetables was also done for the isolation of fungi as market pathogens to study post-harvest diseases. Altogether, fifty nine fungal spore types and 78 species of 33 genera belonging to different groups were recorded respectively on the rotorod strips and on exposed Petri dishes. Many saprophytic and pathogenic fungi were found to be associated with sampled vegetables from the market. In all forty-six fungal species belonging to 26 genera were recovered from five varieties of vegetables collected from the same market. The most dominant forms of fungi were of Aspergillus followed by Cladosporium, Penicillium, Alternaria, Fusarium, Curvularia, Trichoderma, and Rhizopus. Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. fumigatus, Penicillium spp. and Cladosporium herbarum, found to be dominant during the period of investigation. Important mycotoxin-producing fungi such as A. flavus, A. fumigatus and Fusarium moniliforme were isolated from the vegetables collected from the market

Detection of zearalenone, zearalenol and deoxynivalenol from medicinally important dried rhizomes and root tubers

An investigation was carried to determine the natural contamination of three important fusarial mycotoxins; zearalenone (ZEN), zearalenol (ZOL) and deoxynivalenol (DON) in medicinally important dried rhizomes of Acorus calamus, Bergenia ciliata, Curcuma longa, Zingiber officinale and root tubers of Pueraria tuberosa. A total of 130 market samples were investigated for these mycotoxins. Contamination of ZEN was detected in 13.07 percent samples and that of DON was detected in 6.92percent samples. However, only one sample of P. tuberosa was found to be contaminated with ZOL. Qualitative analysis with HPLC revealed very high concentrations of the detected fusarial toxins in the positive samples

An overview of the symbiotic interaction between ants, fungi and other living organisms in ant-hill soils

ABSTRACT Ants are one of the most abundant insects on the earth. They influence soil properties through the construction of their nests due to their burrowing habit and their capability to change physical characteristics, of their hills. The food of ants is essentially cellulosic material and since the ants do not produce cellulose dissolving enzymes, digestion of cellulose is carried out with the aid of micro-fauna including fungi, bacteria and microarthopods which are associated with them. Ants are involved in a symbiotic relationship with fungi for the last 50 million years. Most of the workers have attributed that the symbiotic association has evolved to such a level that the ants cease to produce their own digestive enzymes as the fungus associated with them provides them with hydrolytic enzymes and easily assimilated nutrients. An ant-hill is tremendously important for studying mycodiversity because it is built by worker ants that carry tiny pieces of dirt, leaf debris, animal and agricultural wastes from a particular area and deposit them at the mouth of ant colony. Thus, fungal diversity of ant-hill represents the fungal diversity of a particular area

Mycobial contamination and mycotoxinogenesis of Tinospora cordifolia: an important medicinal plant of India

An investigation of mycoflora and associated mycotoxins was carried out from dried market samples of stem portions of Tinospora cordifolia, an important medicinal plant of India. These samples were collected from various wholesale and retail shops of eight districts of Jammu and Kashmir state viz., Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Srinagar and Leh. A total of 39 fungal species representing 18 genera were recovered by using surface washing technique. Assessment of mycobial load of T. cordifolia showed the presence of many such fungal species that are widely acknowledged as the most important mycotoxin producers. Analyses of samples for mycotoxin contamination was done by multimycotoxin detection method. The dried samples of Tinospora cordifolia were detected to be contaminated with aflatoxin B1, aflatoxin B2, ochratoxin A, patulin and citrinin. Among the various mycotoxins detected, aflatoxins were present in maximum number of samples, which is probably because Aspergillus flavus was recovered from all the investigated samples. However, fusarial species and their toxins were not detected from the investigated samples

MYCOBIAL CONTAMINATION AND MYCOTOXINOGENESIS OF Tinospora cordifolia: AN IMPORTANT MEDICINAL PLANT OF INDIA

An investigation of mycoflora and associated mycotoxins was carried out from dried market samples of stem portions of Tinospora cordifolia, an important medicinal plant of India. These samples were collected from various wholesale and retail shops of eight districts of Jammu and Kashmir state viz., Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Srinagar and Leh. A total of 39 fungal species representing 18 genera were recovered by using surface washing technique. Assessment of mycobial load of T. cordifolia showed the presence of many such fungal species that are widely acknowledged as the most important mycotoxin producers. Analyses of samples for mycotoxin contamination was done by multimycotoxin detection method. The dried samples of Tinospora cordifolia were detected to be contaminated with aflatoxin B1, aflatoxin B2, ochratoxin A, patulin and citrinin. Among the various mycotoxins detected, aflatoxins were present in maximum number of samples, which is probably because Aspergillus flavus was recovered from all the investigated samples. However, fusarial species and their toxins were not detected from the investigated samples