Saxena S., Meshram V. & Kapoor N. (2014) Muscodor darjeelingensis, a new endophytic fungus of Cinnamomum camphora collected from northeastern Himalayas. – Sydo­wia 66 (1): 55–67.

Muscodor species are sterile, volatile producing endophytic fungi with antimicrobial properties. The current study reports the new species Muscodor darjeelingensis from internal stem tissue of Cinnamomum camphora. The fungus produces white colonies over potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium with sterile ropy mycelial filaments. Scanning electron microscopy photographs showed formation of thick sterile mycelium with cauliflower-like structures. The phylogenetic analysis based on ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 confirms its identity as a new species in the genus Muscodor. The fungus also produces a unique mixture of 27 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) predominantly 2, 6-Bis (1, 1-dimethylethyl)-4-(1-oxopropyl) phenol, 1, 6-Dioxacyclododecane-7, 12-dione and 4-octadecylmorpholine. A consortium of these volatiles exhibited inhibitory effect over a tested battery of pathogenic microorganisms. Out of 25 tested pathogenic microorganisms, the VOCs inhibit the growth of five fungal pathogens by 50–70 %, while considerable inhibition was observed against Candida species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Keywords: Darjeeling, anamorphic fungi, ITS rDNA, volatile antimicrobials, sp. nov.