Phytochemistry and Biodiversity of Endophytic Fungal Metabolites Isolated from Medicinal Plants

Olama, Said M.; Sheata, Reda; El Shiekh, Hussien; Younis, Ahmed M.

doi:10.21608/ajar.2024.224023.1198

Phytochemistry and Biodiversity of Endophytic Fungal Metabolites Isolated from Medicinal Plants

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Al Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

² The Regional Center for Mycology and Biotechnology, Al Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

10.21608/ajar.2024.224023.1198

Abstract

It is critical to study endophytic fungi because they boost plant production which benefits both people and animals and meets nutritional needs. Four medicinal plants "Datura sramonium, Echinacea purpura, Salvia rosmarinus and Thymus vilgrus" were used to isolate twelve different fungal species. Preliminary light microscope identification showed that these species belonged to three genera Asprigillus species, Alternaria species, and Fusarium species. Antimicrobial activity was done for the intracellular (Mat) and extracellular extracts of all isolated fungi and showed that the extracellular extracts had higher activity than the intracellular (Mat) extracts. "Candida albicans" was the most sensitive fungal species, creating a disincentive zone (11±0.4 mm) with an (E2) fungal isolate, and "Pseudomonas aurogonosa" was the most sensitive bacterial species, producing a disincentive zone (26±0.5 mm) with an (E2) endophytic fungal isolate. Additionally, utilising (1, 1) diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity to assess the antioxidant activities for the twelve fungal isolates, it has been found that (T1) and (T3) isolated fungi have the highest antioxidant activities, with IC₅₀ values of 36.8 and 36.8 µg/ml, successively. Alkaloids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, tannins, and anthraquinones were found in the extracellular and intracellular (Mat) fungal extracts, which were separated using thin layer chromatography (TLC), demonstrating that the extracellular cell extracts have a higher concentration of these phytochemical groups than the intracellular cells. Additionally, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to completely identify the two most active isolated fungi (R2 and T3), identifying both isolates as Alternaria Alternata.

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