Study of antimicrobial activity and root symbionts of Hemionitis arifolia

Abstract

Antibacterial and antifungal activity of crude extract, alcoholic extract and extracted phenol from various parts of tropical pteridophyta, Hemionitis arifolia were tested by agar diffusion and tube dilution assay. Both the crude and alcoholic extracts of vegetative and reproductive leaves of H. arifolia showed considerable antibacterial activity against Gram negative test strain of Escherichia coli (MTCC-739). Extract from reproductive leaves also showed moderate antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis (MTCC-441) (Gram positive test strain) but didn't show any antifungal activity against Candida albicans (MTCC-7353). Mycorrhizal and other symbiotic association with the root system of H. arifolia was studied and it is revealed that a number of mycorrhizal strains were present in both vegetative and reproductive form. Presence of Dark Septate Endophytic Fungi (DSF) was also detected.

Brief Review on Fungal Endophytes

“…The in situ production of enzymes results in production of bioactive molecule [27,28,35,49,58,60]. Batch Fed fermentation method is used commonly which utilizes the sterilised nutrients under optimized conditions along with fungal endophytes which increase in density [23,36]. The growth rate of fungal endophytes are maintained by the addition of nutrients, also reduces risk of overflow of metabolism [9,23,36].…”

“…Test-tube containing 1-2 ml of fungal crude extract, 5-10 drops of dilute HCl, a piece of Magnesium strips were added and the solution was boiled for few minutes. A reddish pink or dirty brown coloration of solution indicates the presences of flavonoids in the extract [13,16,23,25,55].…”

“…1 ml of fungal crude extract is mixed in 1ml of chloroform and 3-4 drops of concentrated H2SO4 were added. A cherry red colour or reddish-brown precipitate at the interface indicates the presence of terpenoids [13,16,23,25,55].…”

“…The fungal crude extract treated with alcoholic FeCl3 reagent. A bluish black colour, which disappears on adding little dilute H2SO4 followed by the configuration of yellowish brown precipitate, indicates the presence of tannins [13,16,23,25,55].…”

“…Additionally, other novel techniques such as radiochemical labelling can be used for detecting products of genes with low expressions among endophytes (Lodge et al 1996). In addition, the biological potential of fungal secondary metabolites could also be fully realized by the application of combinatorial techniques [23,46,47,51].…”