title: [Isolation of several species of the genus Aspergillus from soil of intrahospital ornamental plants].
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.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile (Campus Norte), Santiago.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Castrillón
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: García
mesh_terms: D001230:Aspergillus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002677:Chile; D006761:Hospitals; D010944:Plants; D012988:Soil Microbiology
vernacular_title: Aislamiento de diversas especies del género Aspergillus de la tierra de plantas ornamentales intrahospitalarias.