2008 Volume 16 Issue 4 Pages 169-175
In this study, we screened for antioxidant activity on a variety of fungi kept in our laboratories, the ethyl acetate-methanol extracts of the mycelia of 174 mold species (228 strains) and the colony of 1 yeast species (1 strain) cultured on agar slant media and methanol extracts of the fruit bodies of 81 mushroom species collected from various locations in Japan and 2 cultivated mushroom species. From both ordinary and reversed phase TLC analysis, the extracts from 23 species (25 strains) of molds (Ascomycota) and from 23 species of mushrooms (Basidiomycota) showed obvious 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity. Among the 23 mold species with potent antioxidant activity, 11 species (12 strains) belong to the genus Eurotium. Overall, the ratio of the number of species with potent activity to the total number of sample species was higher in mushrooms (27.7%) than in molds (13.2%).
