Screening of Pancreatic Lipase Inhibitors of Endophytic Fungi of Medicinal Plants in Uzbekistan

Abstract

Search for pancreatic lipase (PL) inhibitors is essential for obesity and associated chronic disease therapy. PL inhibitors significantly reduce enzyme activity and prevent the absorption and hydrolysis of triglycerides into free fatty acids. This study provides new evidence of screening PL inhibitory activity of 15 endophytic fungi from 6 medicinal plants in Uzbekistan. In general, the extracts of almost all twelve endophytes exposed the inhibitory potential, but only five of them had inhibition levels above 50%. The highest inhibitory activity, amounting to 73.7% and 65.2%, and comparable to the activity of Xenical as a standard, was established for Fusarium sp.-AL142R and F.sambucinum - AL135L, respectively, isolated from the endemic plant Allium longicuspis. The values of IC50 inhibitory activity are 20.7 and 8.01, respectively, compared with Xenical as a standard with IC50 20.6 μg/ml. The inhibitory extracts of both endophytes contain alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, and tannins. The data obtained for the first time indicate the potential of Uzbekistan plant endophytes as possible sources of PL inhibitors