Abstract
Turnera subulata L. is a plant that belongs to the Turneraceae family and is popularly known in Brazil as “Chanana”; it is used as an alternative medicine. Among all microorganisms, fungi are mostly associated with plants. The aim of this study is to isolate, identify and evaluate the antifungal and antioxidant activity of extracts of Phomopsis sp. isolated from T. subulata. From the leaf fragment obtained from T. subulata, the filamentous endophytic fungus Phomopsis sp was isolated. The fungal isolate had a higher growth in potato dextrose agar (PDA) and potato sucrose agar (PSA) culture medium, as well as in the presence of light. In the antagonism test of the endophytic Phomopsis sp. against human pathogens, there was inhibition zone against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, C. tropicalis and C. glabrata. Concerning the antioxidant activity, it was observed that the chloroform extract was more effective than hexane. On the other hand, all the extracts from the mycelium of Phomopsis sp. and its ethyl acetate extract from the cultured filtrate had low antimicrobial activity against strains of E. coli, S. aureus, C. albicans, C. tropicalis and C. glabrata. Therefore it was concluded that Phomopsis sp. may act as an endophyte of T. subulata. Extracts from Phomopsis sp. promoted inhibition zone of growth when tested against human pathogen. Its hexanic and chloroform extracts showed lower antioxidant activity. Key words: Biological control, endophytic fungus, secondary metabolites, filamentous fungus, fungal extract.
Highlights
Endophytic microorganisms are potentially useful to industries, in food and pharmaceutical industries
From the leaf fragments of T. subulata, it was possible to isolate a filamentous fungus that has been identified by classical methods of microscopy and molecular as the fungus Phomopsis sp
After cultivating the isolate in a liquid medium for 30 days, with a total of approximately 16 g of dry biomass isolated from Phomopsis sp., the following quantities of extracts were obtained: n-hexane, 1.68 g; chloroform, 1.28 g; ethyl acetate, 0.72 g; and methanol, 1.92 g, showing an approximate sum of 35% extracts obtained from the total dry biomass (Table 1)
Summary
Endophytic microorganisms are potentially useful to industries, in food and pharmaceutical industries. These microorganisms are important genetic source for biotechnology; they have caught the attention of the scientific community because they produce secondary metabolites which are used in food industry and pharmaceuticals (Strobel, 2003). Diaporthe is the telemorphic form of the genus, Valsaceae (Hanlin and Menezes, 1996). This genus has been isolated as an endophyte in several vegetable crops such as Theobroma cacao L. This genus has been isolated as an endophyte in several vegetable crops such as Theobroma cacao L. (Rubini et al, 2005), Spondias mombin L. (Rodrigues et al, 2000), Aspidosperma tomentosum (Corrado and Rodrigues, 2004), Heterosmilax japonica Kunth (Gao et al, 2005), among others
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