488ANTIFUNGAL PROPERTIES OF HYGROCYBE CANTHARELLUS (SCHWEIN.) MURRILLThe aim of present study is to investigate the antifungal properties of crude extracts of fruit body in different polar solvents (petroleum ether, chloroform, Methanol and aqueous) of Hygrocybe cantharellus in order to use it as a possible source for new antifungal substances. We evaluated the antifungal activity of crude extracts of fruit body of H.cantharellus against some human as well as plant pathogen viz.M. gypseum, T. equinum, T. kanei, C. albicans, C. indicum, C. krusei, C. merdarium, C. zonatum, E. floccosum and T. rubrum andplant pathogenic fungi viz., A. alternate, A. flavus, A. solani, A. tomentosa, C. capsici, C. dematium, C. lindemuthianum, F. oxysporum and F. solani. The dried and powdered fruiting bodies were successively extracted with a series of non polar to polar solvents using Soxhlet assembly. The antifungal assay was done by agar well diffusion method. Petroleum ether and chloroform extract of H. cantharellus show highest activity against C. merdarium and T. equinum (human pathogen), as well as in C. capsici and F. oxysporum (plant pathogen) to varying degrees, by most of the extracts. Clotrimazole, Fleuconazole, Mancozeb and Captan were used as the standard antibiotics against human and plant pathogenic fungi. The extracts of H. cantharellus also significantly inhibited the fungal growth. The inhibitory effect is very identical in magnitude and comparable with that of standard antibiotics usedashokchittaragi1983@gmail.comResearch572014Antifungal properties,Solvent extracts,Pathogens,Hygrocybe cantharellus,Fruiting bodiesAshok Chittaragi, Raja NaikaDept. of P. G. Studies and Research in Applied Botany, Mycology Lab, Bio-Science Complex,Jnana Sahyadri, Kuvempu University, Shankaraghatta-577451, Shivammogga (District) Karnataka, India