Objective: The present investigation is an attempt to an ethnomycological mushroom survey carried out among the paliyar tribals of five settlements in Sirumalai hills. Daldinia concentrica, mushroom reported by the tribals for the wound healing activity was evaluated in vivo in rat model. Methods:The indigenous information of the tribal people was collected through personal interviews during field trips and also the ethno reported mushroom Daldinia concetrica was analysed for its phytochemical constituents by Harborne method and its potential wound healing activity in Albino Wistar rats by excision wound model. Results:The exploration revealed that 92% of the respondents consume mushroom as food and four mushrooms are used in ethnomedicine in the study area namely, Daldinia concentrica, Calvatia gigantean, Termitomyces microcarpus and Podaxis pistillaris. Daldinia concentrica for wound healing, is the first ethnomycological report, thus the further study on Daldinia revealed that the mushroom sample consists of alkaloid 0.97±0.07 mg/kg, flavanoid 2.97±0.12 mg/kg, phenol 0.32±0.01 mg/kg, tannin 0.17±0.02 mg/kg, terpenoid 0.07±0.01 mg/kg and saponin 0.09±0.02 mg/kg; and it's in vivo wound healing activity was found to be outstanding around 75-87% compared to that of the commercial ointment neosporin. Conclusion:We believe that wound healing activity of Daldinia mushroom was due to the synergestic effect of phytochemicals present in them. Our results throw in the insight of the traditional use of mushrooms in various treatments.

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