AN ASSESSMENT OF ANTICANDIDAL POTENTIALS OF Trametes elegans and Trametes lactinae

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study examined the phytochemical and anticandidal properties of fractions obtained from extracts of two wild mushrooms, T. elegans and T. lactinae collected from Ilara Mokin and Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria respectively. The macrofungi were identified based on their morphological and microscopic properties. The bioactive components of Trametes species were extracted using n-hexane, acetone and methanol. Fractions were obtained through chromatographic technique using standard methods. The phytochemical analysis of the mushrooms was carried out both quanlitatively and quatitatively. Candida species used as test organisms were isolated from high vagina swabs (HVS) collected from ten hospitals in Ondo, Osun and Oyo state. Microscopy and biochemical tests were carried out to identify the Candida species. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of saponin, tannin, steroid, terpenoid, and cardiac glycosides with values ranging between 1.503 and 18.364 mg/g. Flavonoid was found only in acetone extract of T. elegans. Quantitatively, cardiac glycosides and saponins were higher while tannins and terpenoids were low. The methanol, acetone and n-hexane of both macrofungi exhibited high anticandidal activity with zones of inhibition ranging from 2.33 to 30.00mm. Methanol extract of Trametes elegans has the lowest Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 25mg/ml. N-hexane extracts has the highest MIC of 50mg/ml. The purified extracts had better and significantly different (P<0.05) zones of inhibition on Candida species than crude extracts. The Gas Chromatography Mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis confirms the presence of some bioactive compounds which includes Hexadecane, n-hexadecanoic acid, pentadecanoic acid, Hexadecanoic acid, n-octadecenoic acid, 2 hexanone, Phenol 3,5 bis (1,1-dimethyl ethyl), octadecen-1-ol, vitamin E and Di phthalic acid. The high anticandidal activity exhibited by the mushroom extracts gives evidence that bioactives from these mushrooms could be developed into antifungal agents for the treatment of Candidiasis.