Secondary metabolites from an endophytic fungus Trichoderma erinaceum with antimicrobial activity towards Pythium ultimum

Abstract

Chemical investigation of the endophytic fungus, Trichoderma erinaceum, isolated from healthy and asymptomatic common bean field crop, resulted in the isolation of a new alkene, (Z)-5-amino-5-(1,1,2-trihydroxybuta-1,3-dienyloxy)pentane-6,7,8,9-tetraol (1), together with five known compounds (2–6). The structures of the compounds were elucidated by analysis of their spectroscopic data including 1 D, 2 D NMR, ESI–HRMS and literature data. The organic crude extract and the compound isolated from T. erinaceum significantly (p ≤ 0.05) inhibited the mycelial growth of Pythium ultimum.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Antimicrobial activity
• endophytic fungus
• Pythium ultimum
• Trichoderma erinaceum

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a post-doctoral scholarship for undertaking this research at INFU, TU Dortmund, Germany. TNS thanks Dr. Souvik Kusari (INFU, TU Dortmund) for technical assistance in the biological assays and Dr. Wolf Hiller (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, TU Dortmund) for realization of the NMR measurements.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.