Possibility of Using the Recycled Fungal Media

Abstract

In this work the ability of some food, industrial and medical fungal strains to grow on fungal recycled media was investigated. The growth ability of Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium sp., Aspergillus niger, and Fusarium equiseti was tested using two specific types of media namely Potato Dextrose Agar and Sabourod Dextrose Agar. The fungi were able to grow on the fungal recycled media for two times. The diameter of the colonies was decreased by about 15% in the recycled media in the first time and decreased by 45% in the recycled media for the second time, only in the three strains: Penicillium sp., Aspergillus niger and Fusarium equiseti. However, Aspergillus flavus had different behavior as the decrease in the diameter of the colonies reached 6% in the recycled media in both the first and second time of recycling, which means that Aspergillus flavus can grow better in recycled media than the other three strains. The work contributes to find safe and clean laboratory methods to dispose of the biological wastes, to preserve the environment and to reduce media costs.