Dr Rekha Shukla

Population, urbanization and industrialization generate waste making garbage pollution a serious problem to most cities. Waste provides an excellent site for colonization and multiplication of microorganisms including fungi. Fungi are known to produce a wide range of secondary metabolites of high therapeutic values. We investigated on the antimicrobial potential of fungi inhabiting hospital, sewage and domestic waste. Seventeen fungal isolates were tested against Escherichia coli. Curvularia lunata which showed a maximum inhibitory activity, were further evaluated against eight pathogenic bacteria by disc diffusion method. Maximum inhibitory activity by C. lunata  against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Vibrio cholera, E. coli and Enterococcus sp. was detected in 20 days old fermented Richard’s broth. Antibacterial metabolite of C. lunata was observed to be thermo-labile.