Narayan Chandra Chatterjee

Research on Mushroom as a Potential Source of Nutraceuticals: A Review on Indian Perspective

Mushrooms are highly nutritive, low-calorie food with good quality proteins, vitamins and minerals. Mushrooms are an important natural source of foods and medicines. Traditional aboriginals knew the medicinal importance of edible and wild mushrooms and these are now being screened for their bioactivity in various ailments. Mushroom represents a major and untapped source of potent new pharmaceutical products. A wide range of activities including antitumour, cardiovascular and antimicrobial are reported in mushrooms. In developing countries like India mushroom progress is a boon in the field of food, medicine, and in generating employment. The alternative systems of medicine utilize the curative properties of mushrooms. By virtue of having high fibre, low fat and low starch, edible mushrooms have been considered to be ideal food for obese persons and for diabetics to prevent hyperglycaemia. They are also known to possess promising antioxidative, cardiovascular, hypercholesterolemia, antimicrobial, hepato-protective and anticancer effects. The present review aimed to discuss on mushroom cultivation as well as medicinal importance as nutraceuticals, antioxidatives, cardiovascular, hypercholesterolemia, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, anticancer, clinical trials and availability of mushroom medicines from Indian context.

Mycoparasitism of Trichoderma spp. in biocontrol of fusarial wilt of tomato

Wilt of tomato caused by Fusarium oxysporum is one of the most serious diseases posing a threat to its cultivation. As such a thorough search was made to evaluate the mycoparasitic potentiality of three species of Trichoderma, T. harzianum, T. viride and T. hamatum towards minimising the effect of the pathogen on ravages of the crop. All the experimental species of Trichoderma were able to produce lytic enzymes, β-1,3 glucanase and chitinase efficiently but their activity could be hastened up in the presence of cell wall material of the pathogen where T. harzianum was recorded to be the best in rank. Lysis of mycelium of the pathogen was achieved by treatment with metabolic filtrate of the antagonistic fungi. SEM micrographs correspondingly showed lysis of pathogenic mycelium due to overgrowth and penetration through hyphal pegs and coiling produced by T. harzianum. Application of the antagonistic fungi in the field showed their ability to reduce the incidence of the wilt disease to a reasonable extent where the performance of T. harzianum happened to be superior over the others.

Biochemical Defense against Die-Back Disease of a Traditional Medicinal Plant Mimusops elengi Linn.

Mimusops elengi (Linn.) commonly known as Bakul is one such tree native to the Western Ghat region of the peninsular India. However, today this tree is also found growing in other parts of the tropical and sub tropical regions of the world. The stem, barks, leaves and fruits are used in various Ayurvedic and folk medications to treat various ailments. Die-back disease caused by Alternaria lunata severely affects the plants grown in and around Burdwan, West Bengal, India. An investigation was carried out to study the phenolics along with their oxidizing enzymes that involve in defense against the activity of the pathogen. Peroxidase activity reached its peak on 14 th day after infection whereas polyphenol oxidase mediated phenol oxidation was increased upto 21 st day in the infected tissues. The enhancement of phenols and their oxidizing enzymes in infected plants affords resistance of the host against die-back.

The strategies for production of forskolin vis-a-vis protection against soil borne diseases of the potential herb Coleus forskohlii Briq.

Coleus forskohlii is an important plant in Indian Ayurvedic medicine. It is the only source for forskolin among the plant kingdom. Forskolin has a unique property of activating almost all hormone sensitive adenylate cyclase enzymes in a biological system. This review article has highlighted on research developments of C. forskohlii for the production and to enhance the production of forskolin by employing various strategies, and also to protect the most potential herb against the soil borne wilt disease, causing a serious threat towards its propagation and cultivation by using effective integrated disease management technology.

Influence of salicylic acid and Glomus fasciculatum on fusarial wilt of tomato and brinjal

Wilt of tomato caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici and wilt of brinjal caused by Fusarium solani are very common in different agricultural fields of West Bengal, India. The study on the effect of salicylic acid (SA) on in vitro growth of the pathogens revealed that SA completely checks the growth at 0.7 mM concentration and above. On the other hand, the percentage of mycorrhisation in the host plants with an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus, Glomus fasciculatum was found to be decreased in the presence of SA in the plants with or without pathogenic infection. Treatment of tomato and brinjal plants either singly with AM fungus or with SA (0.5 and 1.0 mM) and also with their combined treatment showed amelioration of plant height, length of root, fresh weight of root and fresh weight of plants. However, the AM fungus-treated plants showed highest growth responses. The result also reveals that integrated treatment with AM plus SA has significant effect on reduction of infection where application of AM + SA (1.0 mM) resulted in 67.16 and 69.70% reduction of fusarial wilt infection in tomato and brinjal plants, respectively.

Synergism of VAM and Rhizobium on production and metabolism of IAA in roots and root nodules of Vigna mungo.

Mature and healthy root nodules of Vigna mungo appeared to contain higher amount of indole-acetic acid (IAA) than non-nodulated roots. Dual effect of VAM fungus, Glomus fasciculatum and the nitrogen-fixing bacteria, Rhizobium sp. on the nodulation of roots of V. mungo was studied. It was recorded that the roots which were inoculated simultaneously with both the symbionts i.e., G. fasciculatum and Rhizobium exhibited greater amount of IAA production than the non-inoculated roots. A tryptophan pool present in the mature nodules and young leaves might serve as a precursor for IAA production in the roots and in the nodules. Activity of IAA-metabolizing enzymes, such as IAA oxidase, peroxidase, and polyphenol oxidase was investigated which indicates the active metabolism of IAA in roots and nodules. The Rhizobium symbiont isolated from fresh nodules of V.mungo produced significant amount of IAA under in vitro condition when tryptophan was added to the medium as precursor. Present study represents some beneficial effects of Rhizobium and G. fasciculatum on the production and metabolism of IAA in roots and nodules of V. mungo. The important physiological implication of the study on IAA production and its metabolism in Rhizobium–Legume–VAM tripartite symbiosis is certainly representing a new approach to satisfy the hormonal balance in the host plant.

Integrated management of fusarial wilt of tomato with implementation of soil solarisation

Fusarial wilt of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is a very common and severe disease occurring in most of the vegetable fields in West Bengal, India. Potenciation and formulation of different fungicidal chemicals and phytoextracts were evaluated against the growth of the pathogen wherein carbendazim (bavistin) and leaf extracts of Azadirachta indica (neem) were recorded to be most effective. Combined treatment with 4 ml neem leaf extract and 1 ml captan (0.01%) or with 4 ml garlic bulb extract and 1 ml captan (0.01%) exhibited 100% growth inhibition of the pathogen. Integrated control of the pathogen with phytoextracts, fungicide and biocontrol agents was carried out. Among the treatments, a combination with extracts of neem, captan (0.01%) and metabolites of Trichoderma harzianum was proved to be superior over the other. Field experiment with three fungicides at 0.5% concentration was carried out in randomised block design where application of bavistin showed up to 62.27% reduction of wilt infection in tomato plants. Soil solarisation of tomato field showed 62.50 and 66.69% reduction of infection during the trial years. However, integration of soil solarisation with the applications of T. harzianum, captan (0.01%) and neem resulted in 100% reduction of infection and thus it was recorded as the most effective treatment in reducing the incidence of the disease.