Anti-MRSA Activity of Penicillium Minioluteum ED24, an Endophytic Fungus Isolated From Orthosiphon Stamineus Benth

Nowadays, the medical concerns with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aereus (MRSA) arised when in 2009, the proportion of S. aureus isolates that are resistant to methicilin has increased to 59.5%- 64.4% in South East Asia. Hence a new antibacterial agent from natural source is necessary to combat the infectious diseases. This study aimed to investigate the anti-MRSA activity of the endophytic fungus Penicillium minioluteum ED24, which was previously isolated from the leaf of the medicinal plant Orthosiphon stamineus Benth, in Penang, Malaysia. Methanol was used to extract the freeze-dried fungal biomass of the 14-days old fungal culture. The extract showed very significant anti-MRSA activity of disc diffusion assay with the minimal inhibitory concentration of 31.3 mg/mL and minimal lethality concentration of 250 mg/mL. Besides, 50% growth reduction of MRSA was observed at 33.2 h at the concentration of extract at MIC and 26.7 h at concentration of 2MIC. The structural degeneration of MRSA was observed by using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM micrographs showed that the formation of cavities were observe on the extract treated cells and the cell wall structure of the MRSA was collapsed after treated with the fungal extract. The results suggesting that the bacterial cell wall is the target of the antibiotic compound(s) present in the extract. These results reveal that the endophytic fungus P. minioluteum ED24 a is potential source of anti-MRSA compound

Antimicrobial Activity of Phomopsis SP. ED2, an Endophytic Fungus Isolated From Orthosiphon Stamineus Benth

This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial activity of the endophytic fungus Phomopsis sp. ED2, which was previously isolated from the flower of the medicinal plant Orthosiphon stamineus Benth, in Penang, Malaysia. The 14 days-old fungal cultures were extracted with different organic solvents, include hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and butanol. The antimicrobial activities of the extracts were tested by disc diffusion assay. Based on the results, most antimicrobial compounds were present in the ethyl acetate fraction, and this extract could significantly inhibit the activity of bacteria, yeasts and fungi. The results also indicate that the antimicrobial compounds were mainly associated with the fungal biomass and all the Gram-positive test bacteria were inhibited by the ethyl acetate extract of the fungal biomass. Notably, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aereus exhibited a high sensitivity to the extract, with a low minimal inhibitory concentration and low minimal lethal concentration. The isolate also effectively inhibited the growth of the dermatophytes Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton rubrum. Preliminary phytochemical screening also demonstrated that the extract contains phenols and steroids which possess antimicrobial activity. These results reveal that the endophytic fungus Phomopsis sp. is potential source of novel chemotherapeutic agent

The Influence of Physical Parameters Towards Hyper Cholesterol Reducing Agent Production, Lovastatin, Under Solid Substrate Fermentation (SSF) Condition

Two potential substrates namely rice bran and unprocessed brown rice indicated positive result of lovastatin existence. Aspergillus Niger SAR I, our local isolated fungus, took a responsibility to cooperate with those substrates in SSF system. Further experiment including initial profile production, effect of physical parameters (temperature, inoculum size and substrate quantity) and final profile production, were carried out. For initial profile, a basic condition of SSF which consisted 70% (v/w) of moisture content (adjusted to pH 6.0), 5 g substrates mixture (ungrounded size), 1x107 spore/ml of inoculum size and incubation temperature at 30±2 0C, was conducted in a flask system and fermented for 7 days. Those conditions allowed 160.03±3.79 mg lovastatin/g dry substrate of lovastatin production during initial stage. After a study of effect of physical parameters, it showed that the optimum temperature was still at ambient temperature (30±2 0C) and substrate quantity of 5 g but different inoculum size (1x105 spore/ml). Each parameters specifically temperature, inoculum size and substrate quantity produced 253.98±5.92 mg lovastatin/g dry substrate, 297.64±0.56 mg lovastatin/g dry substrate and 298.72±44.12 mg lovastatin/g dry substrate, respectively. Throughout the final profile, the production was 305.08±14.15 mg lovastatin/g dry substrate which made the total increment hit to almost 91%. In this experiment, lovastatin was subjected into high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with acetonitrile and phosphoric acid (pH 3.0) as a mobile phase

Antidepressant-like Effect of Extracts From Urtica Dioica in Mice Model of Depression

Urtica dioica (Stinging nettle) leaves have been used as a traditional medicine to treatrheumatoid arthritis, to alleviate rheumatic pain benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), diuretic and prevention of kidney stones by local people in Middle East region especially in Iran, Turkey and East Europe. Hence, this investigation evaluates the antidepressant effect of selected crude extracts in the forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST), two models predictive of antidepressant activity. The acute treatment of mice with extracts by intra-peritoneal (i.p.) route significantly reduced the immobility time in the FST (50 and 100 mg/kg) and TST (50 and 100 mg/kg), as compared to positive controls (haloperidol and fluoxetine) at 1 and 10 mg/kg, respectively. On the third day of experiment, a significant decrease of mobility was observed for chloroform extract (CE I) and butanol extract (BE II) compared to first day. CE I and BE II led to reduction of immobility time, as the selected extracts with two doses administered were different compared to the control, in the FST method by 65.37% and53.92% for 100 mg/kg, respectively. However, CE I showed the best result compared to our positive controls. Similar results of increased antidepressant effect, that was, of immobility time depending on the concentration administered, were obtained with the TST method. Also our data showed that there was no significant differences between doses (50 and 100 mg/kg). The results suggested that the antidepressant action of the butanol extract and of U. dioica its fraction (BE II2) was mediated by an interaction with 5-hydroxytrptamine (5-HT). U. dioica showed a potential source for the isolation of important natural products with antidepressant-like properties. However, further studies are still require

Penicillium Rolfsii, the Potential Lignocellulolytic Fungus on Hydrolysis of Oil-palm Residues From Oil Palm Trunk as a Second Generation Biofuel Feedstock

Energy crisis involved the excessive consumption of fuels causing the increased in energy demands, oil price and depletion of fossil fuels. This has resulted in generation of high level of greenhouse gases emission. Therefore, in order to overcome these problems, alternative fuel has to be produced. This study was conducted to isolate potential fungal strains which can hydrolyze oil-palm residues as feedstock for bioethanol production. One hundred and sixty four fungal isolates were isolated from various sources and were screened for reducing sugars and protein production using submerged fermentation system. Out of these, 65 fungal strains were found capable to produce high specific activity relatively on oil-palm residues with the assay condition of temperature at 50oC for incubation time of 24 hours. Fungal isolate namely, Penicillium rolfsii was selected for subsequent study since it showed the highest capability to hydrolyze oil-palm residues comparing to other fungal strains based on time-course profile for 48 hours incubation time. Capability of Penicillium rolfsii on hydrolysis of oil-palm residues was evaluated by comparing to type strain of NBRC7735 and commercial enzymes (Celluclast 1.5L and Accellerase®1500). Conversion of these lignocellulosic oil-palm residues into fermentable sugars by enzymatic hydrolysis for bioethanol production has to be further investigated to move towards on alternative, renewable, sustainable, efficient and cost effective energy sourc