Mycochemical contents, Free-radical scavenging capacity and anti-microbial activity of wild edible mushroom from Algeria

Edible fungal species like desert truffles are often considered a healthy food source, contributing to high antioxidant and antimicrobial effects which have been used as functional foods for health promotion and disease prevention, and as treatments for a variety of diseases since antiquity. The use of desert truffles in traditional medicine has led to modern scientific investigation into their bioactive properties. This study is part of this perspective and consists of doing in a first time the determination of the nutritional value of Terfezia boudieri harvested from North-western of Algeria, Secondly, we have evalu-ated the antioxidant capacity using two complementary test systems, name-ly DPPH free radical scavenging and iron reduction (FRAP) , and finely the antimicrobial properties were screened against seventeen Gram positive and Gram negative pathogenic bacterial strains; and two strains of yeast using agar well diffusion method. The quantitative estimate of nutritional value shows that T. boudieri showed a preponderance of proteins and minerals with12.57 ± 0.13 and 15 ± 3g / 100g dry weight respectively; In addition, the methanolic extract of the ascocarps contains a high content of total phenols estimated at 44.68 ± 0.22 mg GAE / g, vitamin c and carotenoids are also present in large quantities. The methanolic extract has good capacity re-duction with iron. The free radical scavenging capacity DPPH is very inte-resting with an IC50 = 0.30 mg / ml; this last remains greater than the radical trapping capacity DPPH of ascorbic acid, whose IC50 = 0.08 mg / ml. Results of antimicrobial activity in particular against Gram (+) bacteria, the diameter of which varies from 10 ± 0.01 to 30 ± 0.57 mm where Bacillus subtilis ap-pears to be the most sensitive. On the other hand, they have moderate activ-ity against Gram (-) bacteria where Enterobacter cleacae, and Actinobacter baumannii, are the only Gram (-) bacteria that show hyper-sensitivity, our methanolic extract did not show anticandidal activity against Candida albi-cans. Therefore, the current results have demonstrated that this mushroom is nutritious and contain multiple antioxidants and has confirmed that desert truffle extracts have antimicrobial properties that are effective against com-mon pathogens that cause disease in humans, which can be further exploit-ed for clinical use.