Screening and functional study of the dominant strains producing total flavonoids from the endophytic fungi of Epimedium korea

Abstract

As a traditional Chinese Dao-di herb, the size of Epimedium korea's stock in wild populations are shrinking yearly due to environmental, climatic, and anthropogenic impacts. In this study, a new fungal strain, Ilyonectria cyclaminicola (I.c.), capable of a high production of total flavonoids was screened from six endophytic fungi isolated from the leaves of E. korea. In the zebrafish model, the metabolites of I.c. strains had similar efficacy to medicinal material. Culturing the I.c. strain with α-actose as the carbon source, glycine as the nitrogen source, at pH = 6 and a culture temperature of 25°C, under 12-h natural light, as the solid fermentation conditions, yielded the highest content of total flavonoids. This study fills the gap in the research on the endophytes of E. korea and lays the foundation for developing the I.c. strain into a new medicinal resource and a substitute for the threatened medicinal material of E. korea.