Green synthesis and biological evaluation of glaucanic acid and dihydrocompactin acid by endophytic fungus Penicillium polonicum from Zingiber officinale

ABSTRACT

Fungal endophytes are valued for biosynthesizing chemically diverse metabolic cascade with interesting biological activities. In the current investigation, two compounds were isolated from Penicillium polonicum, an endophyte of Zingiber officinale. The active moieties, glaucanic acid (1) and dihydrocompactin acid (2) were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of P. polonicum and characterized by NMR and mass spectroscopy. Further, bioactive potential of the isolated compounds was evaluated by antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxicity assays. Compounds 1 and 2 displayed antifungal activity against phytopathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides with more than 50% reduction in its growth. Both the compounds exhibited antioxidant activity against free radicals (DPPH and ABTS) and cytotoxicity activity against cancer cell lines respectively. The compounds, glaucanic acid and dihydrocompactin acid are being reported for the first time from an endophytic fungus. This is the first report on the biological activities of Dihydrocompactin acid produced by endophytic fungal strain.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Endophytes
• Penicillium polonicum
• Zingiber officinale
• Colletotrichum gloeosporioides
• glaucanic acid
• dihydrocompactin acid

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Department of Biotechnology, Government of India for facilities. Ms. Suruchi is grateful to DBT, GOI for the fellowship (DBT-JRF/2011-12/252). Bioinformatics Centre at School of Biotechnology and Instrumentation facility under FIST (DST, GOI) and SAP (UGC, New Delhi) programmes are also acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India; Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India.