Abstract
IN a survey of more than two hundred kinds of mushroom and toadstool collected in South Australia, antibacterial activity was detected in several members of Cortinarius and in one member of Psalliota. The tests were made by the cylinder plate method of Heatley1, with watery extracts obtained by grinding up the mushroom or toadstool in a mortar with a little water. All the active extracts inhibited the growth of Staph. aureus, but extracts of only two fungi showed wider activity. Cortinarius rotundisporus and Psalliota xanthoderma produced extracts which inhibited not only the Gram-positive organism, Staph. aureus, but also the Gram-negative organism, Bact. typhosum, and the acid-fast organism, Myco. phlei.
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References
Heatley, N. G., Biochem. J., 38, 61 (1944).
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ATKINSON, N. Toadstools and Mushrooms as a Source of Antibacterial Substances Active Against Mycobacterium phlei and Bact. typhosum. Nature 157, 441 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157441a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157441a0
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