Abstract
The filamentous fungal pathogen Fusarium sp. causes several crop diseases. Some Fusarium sp. are endophytes that produce diverse valuable bioactive secondary metabolites. Here, extensive chemical investigation of the endophytic fungus, Fusarium sp. QF001, isolated from the inner rotten part of old roots of Scutellariae baicalensis resulted in the isolation of two new photosensitive geometrical isomers of lucilactaene (compounds 2 and 3) along with lucilactaene (6) and six other known compounds (fusarubin (1), (+)-solaniol (4), javanicin (5), 9-desmethylherbarine (7), NG391 (8) and NG393 (9)). Newly isolated isomers and lucilactaene were unstable under light at room temperature and tended to be a mixture in equilibrium state when exposed to a polar protic solvent during reversed phase chromatography. Normal phase chromatography under dim light conditions with an aprotic mobile phase led to the successful isolation of the relatively unstable isomers 2 and 3. Their structures were elucidated as 8(Z)-lucilactaene (2) and 4(Z)-lucilactaene (3) based on spectroscopic data. The absolute configuration of 4 was speculated to be R by computer-assisted specific rotation analysis. The isolated compounds could inhibit NO production and suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines expression in LPS-stimulated macrophage cells. These properties of the isolated compounds indicate their potential use as anti-inflammatory drugs.
Highlights
Plants are a major source of bioactive compounds that play crucial roles in treatment of various diseases
The fungus QF001 with characteristic red pigmentation morphology was found on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates
Based on internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing and morphology, the endophytic fungus QF001 was identified as a Fusarium sp
Summary
Plants are a major source of bioactive compounds that play crucial roles in treatment of various diseases. In recent years, microorganisms associated with plants have proven to be a reservoir of novel compounds with pharmacological activities [1] These microorganisms, commonly known as endophytes, spend the whole or part of its life cycle colonizing inter- and/or intra-cellularly inside the healthy tissues of the host plant, typically causing no apparent symptoms of disease [2,3]. The roots of Scutellaria baicalensis, called Scutellariae Radix, are an important herbal medicine in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat diarrhea, dysentery, allergy, inflammation, jaundice, hypertension, pyrexia, hepatitis, and respiratory infections [5,6] It is commonly known as skullcap, huang-qin (China), hwang-geum (Korea) and ogon or wogon (Japan) and is listed in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Pharmacopoeias [7,8]. QF001 was isolated from freshly harvested old rotten roots, but any of fungal strain was not isolated from the freshly collected unrotten young roots of Scutellaria baicalensis
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