Antimicrobial and phytochemical potentials of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Nigeria

Abstract

Studies were carried out on the antimicrobial effect of aqueous, ethanolic, methanolic and hexane extracts of mycorrhizal fungi; Glomus clarum and Gigaspora gigantea against selected pathogenic microorganisms using well-plate and disc-diffusion methods. The highest antibacterial inhibitory activities (10 mm) were recorded for methanolic extract of Glomus clarum against Proteus vulgaris and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Hexane extract of G. clarum produced the highest antifungal activities (20 mm) against Aspergillus flavus. Generally, the antimicrobial activity of Glomus clarum extracts was significantly higher than that of Gigaspora gigantea. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was 0.1-0.4 mL for the extracts. Shigella sonnei was resistant to all extracts. The phytochemical screening carried out for the extracts showed that all extracts contained alkaloids and anthraquinone.