Aspartate pathway is essential in bacteria, fungi and plants. Any block in the pathway is lethal to the organism. Microbial resistance towards the drug molecule and the side effects exhibited by the drugs are the key basis for searching novel antimicrobial compounds. Since ancient times, medicinal plants are serving as remedies for several diseases and as a source for variety of components. The present study aims on identifying the potential phytocompounds reported from Sphaeranthus indicus and Wrightia tinctoria that can inhibit the pathway enzymes viz., Aspartate kinase, Aspartate semialdehyde dehydrogenase, Homoserine dehydrogenase and Homoserine O-Acetyl transferase. The availability of literature for this pathway is very limited and this work would serve as basis for exploring unique antifungal targets in the future. Among the phytocompounds docked, the first five compounds showing least G. score value were considered. Docking studies conclude rutin, sphaeranthanoloide and chlorogenic acid as potent inhibitors that can be further studied for developing antifungal agents.
Mycoses are fungal infections, the incidence of which in immunocompromised patients is currently devastating and the drugs available at hand are reported to exhibit side effects. To surmount the prevailing difficulty of complete eradication of the fungal infection, exploring new arena is a requisite and nature's wealth can be one area that may lead to a cure for fungal infections. In the present study, the whole methanolic extracts of few medicinal plants were evaluated against Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger and the dermatophyte Microsporum gypseum isolated from the soil. Enicostemma littorale and Wrightia tinctoria exhibited significant (P<0.001) inhibition of about 48% against A. niger. Eupatorium odoratum inhibited both A. fumigatus (52%) and A.flavus (32%) whereas Enicostemma littorale showed about 54% of significant (P<0.05) inhibition against A. fumigatus. Significant inhibition of M. gypseum was exhibited only by Sphaeranthus indicus flower extracts (65% at P<0.05) which was even higher than the inhibition exhibited by positive control ketaconazole (49%) at 0.1 mg/ml concentration. This study demonstrates that among the medicinal plants evaluated E.littorale, W.tinctoria, E.odoratum and S.indicus flower exhibited significant antifungal activity against the tested organisms.
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