International Journal of
MediPharm Research

An aeromycological study at different sites viz., inner, outdoor and 100 meter away of sugarcane field in an agricultural village of Puducherry was carried out during the month from January to April by implementation of petriplate sedimentation method. During the study period, a total number of 420 fungal colony forming units (CFUs) were isolated from the entire site, of which centre of the field contributed the maximum (38%) followed by the border of the field (32%) and 100 mt (30%). Among the recorded taxa, members of Deuteromycotina were predominant in their occurrence followed by the members of zygomycotina and ascomycotina. In qualitative analysis, altogether 18 fungal species belonging to 10 genera and 3 sterile mycelia forms were isolated from the sites. Asperg¬illi are represented by 9 species. Plant pathogenic fungi like Curvularia and Helminthosporium were recorded from the field sites. It was revealed that the Aspergillus awamori, Aspergillus nige,r Aspergillus fumigatus and A. nidulans were the highest with in the centre, border and 100 mt away of the sugarcane field. Besides the dominant ones, contributing substantially to the total fungal CFUs a large number of fungal types recorded incidentally one or three times during the study period contributing thus very negligibly. The month of February contributed the maximum spores in the outdoors but centre site shared the maximum spores in all the months studied. Isolates of A. japonicus, A. nidulans, A. tamari, A. terreus, A. awamori, Cladosporium herbarum, Curvularia lunata, Penicillium fellutanum and Penicillium citrinum accounted for less than or equal to 1 % of total CFUs isolated in both centre, border and 100 meter away of the sugarcane field.

Keywords: Environmental biopollution, Sugarcane field, Airborne fungi