SCREENING OF PIGMENT PRODUCING FUNGI FROM FLORALWASTE AS A PROSPECTIVE ANTI-MICROBIAL TOOLSHIVANI SHARMA, JYOTI SHARMA, DEEPA RANI, ADITI DWIVEDI,MUNSAKA SIANKUKU, VIPIN SAINI AND NEHA SHARMAAbstract Floral waste management in Indian purview is seemingly diffused. The main contributors of floralwaste are religious offerings spanning across PAN India level. Certainly, floral waste appropriatelyreferred to as temple waste is either dumped into adjoining surface waters and streams or is beingpiled up with municipal solid waste for its further processing. Predominantly, floral waste onsistsof Tagetes sp. Our preliminary study is inspired by the fact that floral waste has an immensepotential to develop value added products through microbiological interventions by utilizing thenatural attenuation property of autochthonous microbes. This led to planning of bio-prospectivestudy aimed to screen indigenous pigment producing fungal isolates from Tagetes sp. withdiversified applications in healthcare, textile, food and pharmaceutical industries. Twopromiscuous isolates with pigment producing efficacy were screened by Solid State Fermentation(SSF) and Submerged Fermentation (SmF) and were identified as Mucor sp. and Penicillium sp.Briefly, an attempt was made to ascertain anti-microbial efficacy of Bacillus sp. by Disc DiffusionAssay through Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) against pigment produced by both thefungal isolates with Chloremphenicol, Amoxycillin and Vancomycin as positive controls. Asignificant (p<0.05) anti-microbial efficacy was observed in both the cases (17 mm and 11 mm) withrespect to positives controls. These preliminary findings have led to emergence of new vistasconsidering potential of myco-pigments as novel bio-therapeutics. |