Cytotoxic activities of endophytic fungi isolated from central region of Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

A total of 496 endophytes were isolated from leaves of plants from the central region of Madhya Pradesh. Among them extract RKAAC11 of Asclepias curassavica and RKACQ13 of Alternaria alternata showed good cytotoxic activity. Methanolic extract against MCF-7 cell line showed significantly more cytotoxicity (IC₅₀: 31.53±1.04 µg/ml) than A549 cell line (IC₅₀: 55.26±1.41 µg/ml) (P ≤ 0.05) as compared to paclitaxel as standard. Whereas, chloroform extract against MCF-7 cell line showed significantly potent cytotoxicity (IC₅₀: 15.63±0.65 µg/ml) than A549 cell line (IC₅₀: 19.56±1.25 µg/ml) (P ≤ 0.05) as compared to reference compound paclitaxel. On the other hand, methanolic extract of Alternaria alternata (RKACQ13) showed dose dependent cytotoxicity against MCF-7 and A549 cell line. The MCF-7 cell line showed significantly more cytotoxicity (IC₅₀: 43.23±0.77 µg/ml) than A549 cell line (IC₅₀:46.33±0.9 µg/ml) (P ≤ 0.05) as compared to reference compound paclitaxel with an IC₅₀ value of 3.0 µg/ml and 4.9 µg/ml for MCF-7 and A549 cell line respectively. Results indicate the potential for production of bioactive agents from endophytes of the subtropical flora.