Evaluation of antimicrobial activity of Terfezia arenaria extracts collected from Saharan desert against bacteria and filamentous fungi.

Different desert truffles, collected from Algerian Saharan soils, were identified and their capacity to produce bioactive substances with antimicrobial activity was analyzed. Based on morphological characterization using Melzer's reagent staining, the collected strains were identified as Terfezia arenaria. The bioactive substances from T. arenaria were extracted using the following techniques: maceration with methanol and Soxhlet with dichloromethane. The former led to a yield much higher than that of the latter (i.e., 15% and 0.48%, respectively). Both extracts presented antifungal activities against all the tested strains (i.e., A. niger, Penicillium sp., and C. albicans). However, the dichloromethane extracts showed much higher antibacterial activities against all the tested bacteria (i.e., S. aureus, E. faecalis, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa) than the methanol extracts. The thin layer chromatography of both extracts confirmed the presence of polyphenols and flavonoids.