Studies on the bioactive compounds of selected edible basidiomycetes mushroom fungi

The present study evaluated the anti-cell proliferation properties of edible basidiomycetes mushroom fungi against human breast cancer MCF-7 cell lines. The cells were treated with Dichloromethane (DCM) mycelial extracts of the mushroom fungi at different concentrations. Cytotoxic studies on the breast cancer cell lines (MCF -7) showed the anti-cell proliferation activity of DCM mycelial extracts of Pleurotus florida, Pleurotus djamor and Hypsizygus ulmarius. P. florida and P. djamor organic mycelial extracts caused a progressive cell death beyond 250 μg/ml, while H. ulmarius became effective at 350 μg/ml. The IC50 concentration of P. florida (950 μg/ml) was found to be lower than that of P. djamor and H. ulmarius (1150 μg/ml). The survival rate of MCF-7 cell lines negatively correlated with the extract concentration indicating the dose dependent inhibition of breast cancer cells. The present results suggest that the crude organic mycelial extracts of P. florida has anti-cell proliferation property against the MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. This may be due to the presence of flavonoids, terpenoids and anthroquinones, as evidenced by the preliminary phytochemical analysis of the crude organic mycelial extracts.