Antimicrobial activity of pigments produced by fungi from Western Ghats

D. Saravanan and M. Radhakrish

Abstract

Maximum antibiotics are produced by filamentous micro-organisms like, actinobacteria, fungi. In this study totally 15 fungi isolates were isolated from soil sample from Western Ghats forest. Out of 15 isolates 6 strains produce pigment and identified upto genus level. The strain MF5 showed best activity among other strains against test pathogens. The pigment production from MF5 strain was produced by solid state fermentation and pigment was extracted by ethyl acetate. The extracted crude pigment compound was purified by thin layer chromatography and active spot was identified by bioautography. The minimum inhibitory concentration of purified compound was 12.5μg/ml for Bacillus subtilis