SCREENING OF PIGMENT PRODUCING FUNGI FROM FLORAL WASTE AS A PROSPECTIVE ANTI-MICROBIAL TOOL

Floral waste management in Indian purview is seemingly diffused. The main contributors of floral waste are religious offerings spanning across PAN India level. Certainly, floral waste appropriately referred to as temple waste is either dumped into adjoining surface waters and streams or is being piled up with municipal solid waste for its further processing. Predominantly, floral waste consists of Tagetes sp. Our preliminary study is inspired by the fact that floral waste has an immense potential to develop value added products through microbiological interventions by utilizing the natural attenuation property of autochthonous microbes. This led to planning of bio-prospective study aimed to screen indigenous pigment producing fungal isolates from Tagetes sp. with diversified applications in healthcare, textile, food and pharmaceutical industries. Two promiscuous isolates with pigment producing efficacy were screened by Solid State Fermentation (SSF) and Submerged Fermentation (SmF) and were identified as Mucor sp. and Penicillium sp. Briefly, an attempt was made to ascertain anti-microbial efficacy of Bacillus sp. by Disc Diffusion Assay through Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) against pigment produced by both the fungal isolates with Chloremphenicol, Amoxycillin and Vancomycin as positive controls. A significant (p