Preliminary study on the antifungal activities of selected garden plants against house mold / Faziella Puasah

Garden plants are normally use for decorative purposes and also health reason like indoor air purification. It is also used as the treatment for certain disease such as cough, swelling, fatigue and ulcer. House mold is one of the dangerous fungi that usually grow at wet condition inside the house. It is categorized as toxic black mold because it contains mycotoxin that will associate with asthma and allergic symptoms to human. Based on the dentification that had been done in this study, the house molds that were used are Stachybotrys. In this study, three common garden plants which are Furcraea selloa var. marginata (K. Koch), Sansevieria trifasciata (Hort. exD. Prain) and Zamioculcas zamiifolia (Lodd) Engl, were used to determine whether they have potential to control the growth of house mold. Disc diffusion methods with three different concentrations (5mg/mL, lOmg/mL and 15 mg/mL) were used to assess the antifungal activity of these three plants against the house mold. The crude extraction of S. trifasciata showed the effectiveness to control Stachybotrys compare to Z. zamiifolia. This indicates that S. trifasciata and Z zamiifolia have potential as bio-fungicidal agents against Stachybotrys.