Abstract
BackgroundSalvia miltiorrhiza Bge. f. alba is a traditional Chinese herbal drug with special pharmacological effect on thromboangiitis obliterans. However, the nature source of S.miltiorrhiza Bge.f.alba is now in short supply because of the over-collection of the wild plant. To better utilize this resource, the diversity and antioxidant activity of endophytic fungi isolated from S. miltiorrhiza Bge. f. alba were investigated.ResultsA total of 14 endophytic fungi were isolated from different parts of S. miltiorrhiza Bge.f.alba. Based on morphological and molecular identification, the endophytic fungi isolated were classified into four genera (Alternaria sp., Fusarium sp., Schizophyllum sp. and Trametes sp.). These fungal extracts were prepared using ethanol and evaluated for their phytochemical compounds and antioxidant activity. Alternaria alternata SaF-2 and Fusarium proliferatum SaR-2 are of particular interest because they yielded all of nine phytochemicals including saponins, phenol, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, steroids, tannins, alkaloids, anthroquinone and terpenoids. F. proliferatum SaR-2 and A. alternata SaF-2 also exhibited stronger antioxidant activities by FRAP and DPPH method, having the higher levels of phenol and flavonoid than those of plant root. The total amount of phenol and flavonoid quantified were of 21.75, 20.53 gallic acid equivalent per gram and 8.27 and 7.36 μg/mg of quercetin equivalent respectively. These two endophytic fungi (SaR-2 and SaF-2) were found to have comparable scavenging abilities on both FRAP (1682.21 and 1659.05 μmol/mg, respectively) and DPPH-free radicals (90.14% and 83.25%, respectively, at 0.1 mg/mL). This is the first report about isolation of endophytic fungi from S. miltiorrhiza Bge.f.alba and their antioxidant activities.ConclusionsThese results indicate that the endophytic fungi associated with S. miltiorrhiza Bge.f. alba can be a potential source of novel natural antioxidants.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40529-015-0086-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. f. alba is a traditional Chinese herbal drug with special pharmacological effect on thromboangiitis obliterans
The majority (n = 7, Colonization frequency (CF) 12.96%) was recorded from roots, followed by flowers (n = 5, 9.26%), stems (n = 1, 1.85%) and leaves (n = 1, 1.85%), respectively (Table 1). 4 isolates mainly belonging to Alternaria sp. and Sterile mycelia were isolated from Site 1, 6 strains (Alternaria sp., Fusarium sp., and Sterile mycelia) were isolated from Site 2 and 4 strains (Alternaria sp., and Sterile mycelia) were isolated from Site 3
High phenolic and flavonoid content found in the ethanol extracts of Fusarium sp. and Alternaria sp. imply the contribution of these compounds to antioxidant activities, which was consistent with early study (Govindappa et al 2011; Murthy et al 2011; Sadananda et al 2011). These findings indicate that endophytic fungi from S. miltiorrhiza Bge.f.alba may be effective as a promising potential for the development of novel antioxidant drugs
Summary
Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. f. alba is a traditional Chinese herbal drug with special pharmacological effect on thromboangiitis obliterans. The nature source of S.miltiorrhiza Bge.f.alba is in short supply because of the over-collection of the wild plant. To better utilize this resource, the diversity and antioxidant activity of endophytic fungi isolated from S. miltiorrhiza Bge. f. S. miltiorrhiza Bge.f.alba is a white flowered varietas of S. miltiorrhiza Bunge and was present only in Shandong province of China Studies showed that it had special pharmacological effect on thromboangiitis obliterans (Hao et al 2009). Endophytic fungi residing within these plants are able to produce bioactive compounds such as paclitaxel, podophyllotoxin and camptothecine (Aly et al 2010), which were produced by their respective host plants This is advantageous for us to develop an alternative way for efficiently producing these valuable and scarce bioactive constituents. These bioactive products could be classified as saponins, phenol, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, steroids, tannins, alkaloids, anthroquinone and terpenoids (Tan and Zou 2001; Zhang et al 2006)
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