Abstract:
Endolichenic fungi (ELF) are unexplored group of organisms as a source for the production
of bioactive secondary metabolites with radical scavenging activity, antilipase and amylase
inhibitory activities. Endolichenic fungi in lichens collected from mangrove or mangrove associated
plants are least known for their fungal diversity and potential to produce bioactive compounds.
A total of 171 ELF strains were isolated from the lichens collected from mangrove
and mangrove associated plants in Puttalam lagoon. Out of this collection, 70 isolates were
identified using rDNA-ITS region sequence homology to the GenBank accessions and a phylogenetic
analysis was performed. Commonly isolated genera of ELF from lichens were
Aspergillus, Byssochlamys, Talaromyces, Diaporthe, Phomopsis, Endomelanconiopsis,
Schizophyllum, Cerrena, Trichoderma, Xylaria, Hypoxylon, Daldinia, Preussia, Sordaria,
Neurospora, and Lasiodiplodia. In the present study, the effectiveness of ethyl acetate
extracts of the ELF isolates were investigated against antioxidant activity, antilipase activity
and α-amylase inhibition activity in in-vitro conditions. The results revealed that the extracts
of Daldinia eschscholtzii, Diaporthe musigena and Sordaria sp. had the highest radical scavenging
activity with smaller IC50 values (25 μg/mL to 31 μg/mL) compared to the IC50 values
of BHT (76.50±1.47 μg/mL). Antilipase assay revealed that 13 extracts from ELF showed
promising antiobesity activity ranged between 25% to 40%. Amylase inhibitory assay indicated
that the test extracts do not contain antidiabetic secondary metabolites.
