Abstract

The fungus, Emericella nidulans was isolated from soil. The ITS region of 5.8S rRNA of the isolated fungus was amplified and sequenced. E. nidulans EGCU312 was given an accession number: KC511056 in the NCBI GenBank. Twenty one (21) fractions were obtained from the ethyl acetate extract of fungal filtrate. Fraction no. 12 showed the highest antioxidant activity with 81.54% at 200 µg/ml. High anticancer activities (against EACC cell line) ranging between 64.3 and 87.7% at 200 µg/ml, were exhibited by fractions no. 1, 2, 4, 9, 12 and 20. The mode of action of anticancer activity was studied by measuring activities of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and caspase-3. Fraction no. 12 gave the highest effect (2249.2 U/l) in LDH released as compared to control cells (1127.7 U/l) and caused a 1.56-fold increase in caspase-3 activity. Interestingly, fraction no. 12 caused 100% inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli at 50 µg/ml, and Aspergillus fumigatus at 100 µg/ml. The minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) of this fraction were 4 and 10 µg/ml for S. aureus and E. coli, respectively, while the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was 45 µg/ml against A. fumigatus. GC-MS profile of fraction no. 12 showed 21 compounds, six of which, that is, 2-methylbenzylamine, N-heptyl-N-octyl; naphthalene, 2,3,6-trimethyl-; octadecanoic acid, ethyl ester; 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, butyl octyl ester; tributylacetylcitrate; 1,2- and benzenedicarboxylic acid, diisooctyl ester, were of known biological activities.

Key words: Emericella nidulans EGCU 312, antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial.