Diversity, Chemical Constituents, and Biological Activities of Endophytic Fungi Isolated From Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the diversity of endophytic fungi of different parts of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort (CX) and further characterize their biological activities and identify chemical compounds produced by these endophytic fungi. A total of 21 endophytic fungi were isolated and identified from CX. Penicillium oxalicum, Simplicillium sp., and Colletotrichum sp. were identified as promising strains by the color reaction. Comparing different organic extracts of the three strains, it was observed that the ethyl acetate extract of Penicillium oxalicum and Simplicillium sp. and the n-butanol extract of Colletotrichum sp. showed significant antioxidant and antibacterial activities. The ethyl acetate extracts of Penicillium oxalicum had outstanding antioxidant and antibacterial effects, and its radical scavenging rates for ABTS and DPPH were 98.43 ± 0.006% and 90.11 ± 0.032%, respectively. At the same time, their IC50 values were only 0.18 ± 0.02 mg/mL and 0.04 ± 0.003 mg/mL. The ethyl acetate extract of Penicillium oxalicum showed MIC value of only 0.5 mg/mL against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. By liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), we found that Penicillium oxalicum could produce many high-value polyphenols, such as hesperidin (36.06 μmol/g), ferulic acid (1.17 μmol/g), and alternariol (12.64 μmol/g), which can be a potential resource for the pharmaceutical industry. In conclusion, these results increase the diversity of CX endophytic fungi and the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of their secondary metabolites.

Assessment of Biological Activities of Fungal Endophytes Derived Bioactive Compounds Isolated from Amoora rohituka

“…The moderate superoxide anion scavenging activity of P. oxalicum can be related to its high phenolic content. In a report, the fungal endophyte P. oxalicum isolated from Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort (CX) was reported to exhibit superoxide anion scavenging activity with an IC 50 value of 1.41 ± 0.22 mg/mL and contain high polyphenolic content [ 48 ]. EA extract of T. longibrachiatum showed moderate antioxidant activity.…”

“…In a report, P. oxalicum isolated from Citrus limon has shown concentration dependent scavenging of hydroxyl radical that was attributed to its polyphenolic contents [ 43 ]. The fungal endophyte P. oxalicum isolated from Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort (CX) showed strong correlation between polyphenolic content and hydroxyl anion scavenging and EC 50 value for scavenging activity was observed to be 3.38 ± 0.04 mg/mL [ 48 ]. These results suggest that the fungal endophytes P. oxalicum and T. longibrachiatum isolated from A. rohituka could serve as a potential candidate against oxidative damage.…”

In Vitro and In Silico Antioxidant Efficiency of Bio-Potent Secondary Metabolites From Different Taxa of Black Seed-Producing Plants and Their Derived Mycoendophytes

“…Polyphenols have hydroxyl groups and play a vital role in antioxidation, scavenging free radicals, and other pharmacological activities ( Gangwar et al, 2014 ). Therefore, the discovery of polyphenol-producing endophytic fungi could help meet the needs of the pharmaceutical and food industry ( Tang et al, 2021 ).…”

“…n -butanol was the more effective solvent for the extraction of polyphenols with 58.96 GAE/g polyphenols. In addition, antioxidant activities seemed to be correlated with total phenolic content ( Tang et al, 2021 ). On the other hand, the methanolic extract of Cochliobolus sp.…”

“…Polar and medium polarity solvents are more favorable to the extraction of low and high molecular weight polyphenols in endophytic fungus fermentation broth than nonpolar solvents ( Tang et al, 2021 ). Successive n- butanol fraction, viz., n-hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions obtained from the Trichoderma viride culture filtrate proved the most effective in retarding the growth of pathogenic Alternaria alternata afforded by n- butanol fraction.…”