Bio-mining the forest ecosystem of North East India for identification of antimicrobial metabolites from fungi through submerged fermentation.

ABSTRACT

In this study, fungi isolated from less explored forest soil ecosystem of Northeast India were studied for the production of potential antimicrobial metabolites (AMM). Out of the 68 fungi isolated from forest soil of Manipur, 7 of them showed AMA against the test pathogens. Among them, Aspergillus terreus (IBSD-F4) showed the most significant activity against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC-25923), Bacillus anthracis (IBSD-C370), Pseudomonas fluorescens (ATCC-13525), Salmonella typhimurium (ATCC-14028), Escherichia coli (ATCC-25922) and Candida albicans (ATCC-10231). The active metabolite was harvested from the fermentation broth of Aspergillus terreus and purified by column chromatography and semi preparative-HPLC. The compound was identified as 'Sclerotionigrin A' on the basis of UV-vis spectra, MS and NMR analyses. This compound was reported for the first time from A. terreus. The study highlights, the importance of exploring microbes from forest soil for identification of bioactive metabolites for future drug development.