Identification, GC-MS analysis and antibacterial activity of endophytic fungi isolated from Trigonella foenum-graecum leaf

The present study was designed to identify the endophytic fungi isolated from leaves of Trigonella foenum-graecum (local name: Fenugreek or Methi) from Bangladesh, followed by a GC-MS analysis of fungal culture filtrates to explore major components present in the ethyl acetate extract and finally to assess their putative antibacterial activity. Two pure fungal extracts, entitled TFLE-1 and TFLE-2 were isolated from the leaf of T. foenum-graecum followed by extraction with ethyl acetate. The fungal strains, TFLE-1 and TFLE-2 were identified as Fusarium lichenicola and Trichoderma euskadiense respectively as per microscopic and molecular identification. GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of a total of 47 bioactive compounds among which 2-((4-methylpentan-2-yloxy)carbonyl)benzoic acid (15.33%), pyrrolo1,2-apyrazine-1,4-dione, hexahydro-3-(2-methylpropyl) (12.42%), benzeneethanamine, 4-benzyloxy-2-fluoro-beta-hydroxy-5-methoxy (3.45%) for TFLE-1 and pentatriacontane (8.61%), diethyl trisulfide (2.90%) and benzene,3-heptynyl (2.78%) for TFLE-2 were the major ones. On antibacterial activity, by disc-diffusion method, the fungal strain T. euskadiense (code: TFLE-2) showed prominent antibacterial activity against both gram (+) and gram (-) multiple-resistant bacteria while compared to the standard drug kanamycin; values were found statistically significant (p?0.05). The findings of the study indicated presence of potentially bioactive endophytic fungal extracts obtained from the leaves of T. foenum-graecum cultivated in Bangladesh.