Comparison of Fungi with Sclerotia as Sustainable Materials for Product Design

Abstract

Due to the increasing problems related to environmental pollution, sustainable and biodegradable materials gained importance. Fungi are among the most promising sources as biomaterials and have recently been used in product design. Sclerotia are compact hyphal masses produced by fungi under certain conditions, especially for survival. In this study four sclerotia forming fungi; Botrytis cinerea, Laetisaria arvalis, Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizoctonia solani were compared in terms of features of sclerotia and possible usage as sustainable materials. Fungi were grown on a solid medium (potato dextrose agar) for two weeks and sclerotia formations were compared by daily observations. L. arvalis and M. phaseolina had smaller sclerotia homogeneously scattered all over the medium surface, while B. cinerea and R. solani formed sparse and bigger sclerotia. Shapes, colors and hardness of the sclerotia were also different from each other. Like fungal mycelia, sclerotia with more resistant structures may also be used as biomaterials in product design.