Cost effective alternative fungal culture media formulation using fruit and vegetables waste

Potato Dextrose Agar is general purpose medium used for the cultivation of broad range of fungi. Use of commercially available culture media for research purpose is costly so cheap culture media needs to be formulated. The feasibility of developing alternative culture media for PDA was assessed using locally available cheap materials such as Vegetables and fruits wastes, as they contain considerable amount of carbohydrate, protein and macro elements. These wastes are easily available in local shops, vegetable markets and kitchen. Now a day’s waste disposal is also a major problem, so use of these nutrient rich waste materials for cultivation of fungi could be Good Avenue to look for. Waste such as Drumstick peel, seed; Cauliflower stalk, Potato peel, Fenugreek stem and orange peel was used to formulate media. Ability of media to support growth of Aspergillus and Trichoderma was tested. Elemental components of the media were determined. The medium had considerable protein and carbohydrate content. The pH of the media was adjusted to 4.0 ± 0.2 before sterilization. Growth on formulated media was comparable to commercially available media.