The Metabolic Profiling, Docking Studies and Antimicrobial Activity of the Endophytic Fungi, Fomitopsis pinicola (AVK1) isolated from the rhizome of Zingiber officinalis.

Ginger, a medicinal herb and a spice and flavouring agent, is used to treat cancer, diabetes and infectious diseases. This study investigates the therapeutic efficiency of endophytic fungi (AVK1) isolated from ginger. Based on 18s rRNA partial gene sequencing and phylogenetic studies, AVK1 was identified as Fomitopsis pinicola and was submitted to GenBank with accession number (PP957928). F. pinicola was found to be an effective antimicrobial drug against various human pathogens, with the maximum zone of inhibition observed against Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhimurium using agar well-diffusion assays. The MIC and IC50 values were 14.0 and 7.14 μg/mL respectively. The bioactive constituents present in ethyl acetate extract of AVK1 include gingerol (18.05%), paradol(14.81%), zingiberene(10.47%), shogaol(7.67%) and sesquiphellandrene (7.59%). The anticancer properties of phytocompounds were assessed using molecular docking. In silico studies targeted overexpressed cancer proteins, confirming their potential as effective cancer treatments. Docking scores against drug target proteins were validated. The affinities of binding energies against the 1M17 target protein were shagaol (-6.5 kcal/mol) > gingerol (-6.2 kcal/mol) > zingiberene (-6.0 kcal/mol) and paradol (- 5.8 kcal/mol). According to in vitro and silico studies, F. pinicola (AVK1) can be used as an efficient therapy against infectious diseases and cancers.