ISOLATION OF MICROORGANISMS (FUNGI) FROM KOCHO AND BULLA FOR ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES

Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) belongs to the family Musaceae, and is one of the oldest cultivated herbaceous and monocarpic banana-like food security crops in Ethiopia. Microbes which colonize living internal tissues of plants without causing any harm to their host can be used for testing their antioxidant potential under controlled conditions. These microbes protect their hosts from adverse conditions by secreting bioactive secondary metabolites. Therefor, the present study was to assess antioxidant potentials of microscopic fungi from enset bulla and Kocho. The enset kocho and bulla samples were collected from enset variety that is used as traditional medicine. The samples were kept for sometime in the refrigerator before used as fungal cultures. The antioxidant activity was conducted based on determination of phenolic content,2,2- diphenyl-picrylhydrzyl and hydrogen peroxide free radical scavenging activities. The result of morphological structures of the pure cultures of the fungal isolates of enset kocho and bulla indicated the presence of Penicillium sp, Cladosporium sp and Aureobasidium sp in the kocho isolates while Alternaria sp, Cryptococcus sp and Aureobasidium sp were detected in Bulla sample. The antioxidant activities were measured based on phenolic content, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and hydrogen peroxide scavenging activities. It was observed that significantly the highest phenolic content (7.13mg/L), 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (80.65%) was recorded for Cladosporium sp extract. From the present study, it can be concluded that the Penicillium sp isolate extract was found to have the best antioxidant potentials and it can be recommended for microbial production of bioactive compounds if further investigation is pursued