Endophytic Fungi as a Novel Source of Medicinally Important Secondary Metabolites

Endophytes are microbes that live symbiotically within each plant tissue and synthesize medicinally important secondary metabolites. The leaves, stem, root, bark of the endangered medicinally important plant Celestrus paniculatus were used for the isolation of endophytic fungi Aspergillus niger.  The endophytes were mass-cultured in Potato Dextrose broth and the extract was prepared using ethyl acetate.  FTIR analysis was done to detect the characteristic peak values of various functional groups of compounds. The results showed the presence of functional groups of alcohol, alkanes, alkenes, aromatics, amines, amides, carboxylic acids, phenol, and flavnoids in the ethyl acetate extracts of endophytic fungi. Among these bioactive components of endophytes alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, and phenolic compounds are the most significant. The results confirmed that most of the chemical compounds of endophytic fungus are similar to those compounds that are present in the Celestrus paniculatus plants.