King Alferd’s Mushroom (Daldinia concentrica) - An Investigation on its Cutaneous Wound Healing Activity from the Indigenous Knowledge of Tribes of Sirumalai Hills, Tamilnadu, India

The current study is an attempt to conduct an ethnomycological mushroom survey among the paliyar tribals of five settlements in the Sirumalai hills. Daldinia concentrica, a mushroom used by tribals for wound healing, was tested in vivo in a rat model. Wild mushroom tend to grow on areas with high humidity and rainfall. The investigation revealed that 92% of the respondents consume mushroom as food and four mushrooms are used in ethnomedicine in the study area namely, Daldinia concentrica, Calvatia gigantean, Termitomyces microcarpus and Podaxis pistillaris. Daldinia concentrica for wound healing, is the first ethnomycological report, thus the further study on Daldinia discovered that the mushroom sample consists of alkaloid 0.97±0.07mg/kg, flavanoid 2.97±0.12mg/kg, phenol 0.32±0.01mg/kg, tannin 0.17±0.02mg/kg, terpenoid 0.07±0.01mg/kg and saponin 0.09±0.02mg/kg; and it’s in vivo wound healing activity was found to be outstanding around 75 – 87% compared to that of the commercial ointment neosporin. The activity could be attributed to the synergistic effect of phytochemicals found in them. Our findings shed light on the traditional use of mushrooms in a variety of treatments.