Lipase inhibitory activity of endophytic fungal species of Aegle marmelos: a bioresource for potential pancreatic lipase inhibitors

Abstract

Obesity is the most prevailing disease spread all over the world. Targeting lipid metabolism for the development of anti-obesity drugs is best therapeutic option. Primary drug target is pancreatic lipase which causes degradation of 50–70 % of ingested fat. In the present study cell free extracts of 70 endophytic fungi isolated from medicinal plants of Western Ghats were primarily tested for their pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity using chromogenic olive plate assay. Three endophytic fungi #6 AMLWLS, #59 AMSTWLS and #1058 AMSTITYEL showed reduction in the halo formation indicating potential pancreatic lipase inhibition. Further quantitative assays for pancreatic activity of these fungi were estimated using p-nitrophenyl laurate as substrate. The IC50 of crude aqueous extract of #6 AMLWLS was 2.12 μg ml−1 which is better than orlistat exhibiting IC50 of 2.79 μg ml−1. The crude compound was further purified by column chromatography. The pure compound was characterized to be an amino acid derivative. On the basis of classical and molecular taxonomy the bioactive fungus was identified as Fusarium incarnatum.