Montana State University professor Gary Strobel travels the world in search of exotic plants and the mysterious fungi that live inside them. Among his discoveries: a smelly white fungus that acts as a natural antimicrobial.

Discovery
Fantastic Fungus: Plant Biologist Discovers Natural Antimicrobial in Honduran Jungle

Montana State University professor Gary Strobel travels the world in search of exotic plants and the mysterious fungi that live inside them. Among his discoveries: a smelly white fungus that acts as a natural antimicrobial.

A pure culture of Muscodor albus, a fungus that gives off an anti-microbial gas. Credit and Larger Version

October 5, 2005

The gold rush era may be over, but in Montana another type of globetrotting prospector is making news. Montana State University biologist Gary Strobel has spent much of the past two decades rummaging in the planet’s remaining rain forests for treasures in twigs and stems. And he’s sharing his spoils with the world.

It isn’t the plants themselves that most interest Strobel. Back at his laboratory, he inspects the cuttings he has collected for the precious bounty they carry: the bacteria and fungi that live inside, known to biologists as endophytes. Strobel screens the organisms–and the gases and other waste products they give off–looking for potential drugs, pesticides or other useful compounds.

Sometimes what he finds is very useful–and surprising. In 1999, Strobel opened a plastic tray in his Montana State University laboratory and thought for a minute that his recent expedition to the Honduran rain forest had been a bust. Of the dozen or so species of fungi he had collected there, all had survived the trip. But after Strobel placed them in a shared container to prevent infestation from mites in the laboratory, all but one died after a few days.

At first, Strobel was perplexed. But then came a Eureka moment.

He recalls: “You ask yourself, ‘Why did all of them die?’ But it was all but one. It must have killed everything else. Fumes.” On closer inspection, Strobel found that a fungus collected from a cinnamon tree had effectively conducted gas warfare on the other specimens.

Strobel named the killer fungus Muscodor albus, Latin for “stinky white fungus.” He and his colleagues found more than 30 ingredients in the fumes released by M. albus, none of which are toxic to mammals or plants on their own. But combined, the volatile chemicals proved to be a deadly recipe.

“This little thing is a chemical factory,” says Strobel. “When we put all the chemicals together in the same ratio, we can reproduce its effect against other microbes. You can grow it on one half of a plate and put almost any microbe on the other side and [the microbe] will grow for an hour and die.”

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One of the most destructive discoveries of man is the discovery of explosives. According to historical accounts from records of ancient Chinese manuscripts, gunpowder was first mentioned from a passage from the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolue, a Taoist text dated to the middle of 800 AD.

Its discovery was a result from centuries of experimentation of alchemists trying to find
the elixir of life.

Saltpeter which is the main ingredient of the first explosives was already known to the
Chinese by the middle of the 1st century AD through saltpeter and sulfur medicinal combinations.

By the year 492 the first documented observation of the explosive/combustive properties of saltpeter was recorded in a Chinese alchemical text and noted that it gave off a purple flame when ignited and thus provided the first hint for a thorough evaluation for its potential use resulting to attempts of purification of the substance that gave way to the experimentation that led to the accidental discovery of explosives.

The discovery of gunpowder resulted to the subsequent discovery of its potential use as a means of destruction or as an impliment of war thereby resulted to the invention and development of firearms in the 1100’s which also coincided with long periods of conflicts.

It was only on the 15th century AD that the first account of a large scale non military use of explosives was in civil engineering and mining operations records from Hungary.

From the time of the first accidental discovery of explosives until now, the main and most prevalent application or intent for the production of explosives is always for destruction of fellow human being in the guise of national security through the military.