Solid substrate cultures of moulds behave in quite a difTerent way to conventional submerged cultures. Catabolic repression often observed in submerged fermentation can easily be overcome by using solid state fermentation. A. niger strains can be grown by SSF technique with the following advantages: enzyme titres and productivity are usually higher; there is a tendency to early enzyme excretion...

Purpose Stachybotrys atra has achieved great notoriety recently as a mould capable of producing mycotoxin, a potentially quite harmful substance. Because of news reports, patients have become quite concerned about “mould allergy” as the cause of an increasing number of symptoms. We set out to discover what percentage of patients referred to regional Allergy clinics have become sensitized to mou...

The methanol extracts of leaves, flowers, stem and root barks of Cassia alata showed a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity. The activity was increased on fractionation (petrol, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate), the dichloromethane fraction of the flower extract being the most effective. No activity was shown against tested moulds.

Fusarium spp., common soil moulds, are emerging fungal pathogens in immunocompromised subjects. We report the first case of Fusarium solani peritonitis in a patient with liver cirrhosis. Because of the high morbidity and mortality associated with fusariosis, an aggressive approach to treatment as well as identification of the species and drug susceptibilities is warranted.

Chromoblastomycosis is a chronic subcutaneous mycotic infection caused by dematiaceous saprophytic moulds. The most frequently isolated agent is Fonsecae pedrosoi. This article reports a case of a man from the Amazon region in Northern Brazil who presented with a lesion of 12 months' duration, which gradually increased in size until covering the majority of his right leg. A successful treatment...