Some biodeteriorating air-borne fungi in and around Lucknow, India

Abstract

The paper presents the result of qualitative and quantitative analyses of mycoflora in the air of Lucknow city and adjoining areas. Burkard slide sampler and Andersen two-stage volumetric samplers were employed for air sampling at forty places of Lucknow at different times of the year from January 1997 to February 1998. As many as thirty-five types of fungal spores and twenty-nine types of fungal colonies were registered.

It has been envisaged that certain fungi such as Alternaria, Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Diplodia, Epicoccum, Fusarium, Nigrospora, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Torula, Trichoderma, Trichothecium, etc., prevalent in the air are associated with the biodeterioration of cultural properties.