Isolation of several species of the genus Aspergillus from soil of intrahospital ornamental plants Aislamiento de diversas especies del género Aspergillus de la tierra de plantas ornamentales intrahospitalarias.

Abstract

The earth of ornamental plants is one of the main reservoirs of Aspergillus type of fungi in hospital areas. We studied 174 ornamental interior plants from a hospital at Santiago. Samples were obtained from the soil surface and sowed in Sabouraud-glucose agar, adding streptomycin and G-penicillin. After 72 h of culture, at least one strain of Aspergillus was isolated from 140 samples (80.5%). The most frequently isolated strain was A fumigatus (129 samples), followed by A niger (75 samples). A fumigatus and A niger were the only isolated strains in 65 and 11 samples respectively. These findings confirm that ornamental plants can be important reservoirs of Aspergillus strains, a potential infectious agent for immunocompromised patients, in hospital areas.