Screening of lovastatin from higher basidiomycetous fungi from NTCC, forest pathology discipline, Dehradun, India

Abstract

A study was carried out to screen lovastatin producing ability in Higher Basidiomycetous Fungi isolates from India. For this an extended screening was performed for lovastatin production in Potato Dextrose medium (solid and liquid medium), among a total of 40 basidiomycetous isolates which were obtained from NTCC, Forest Pathology Discipline, Forest Protection Division, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India). Lovastatin production was evaluated by the disc diffusion method and agar well diffusion method. During the bioassay experiment with Neurospora crassa 159 only six isolates were found to be lovastatin producers viz., Pleurotus ostreatus (NTCC 1253), P. sajor-caju (NTCC 1010), P. floridanus (NTCC 1126), P. eous (NTCC 1264), P. eryngii (NTCC 1070) and P. cystidiousus (NTCC 1006) in liquid and solid growth media with centrifugation and the filtration method.