Isolation and fermentation of endophytic fungi from Singapore plants followed by isolation of active compounds from fungi extract.

Fungal endophytes are not widely studied and are lost rapidly through human activities but these endophytes could be a good natural source for drug discovery. Throughout this project we managed to expand our fungal collection, provided support to the chemistry and bioassay departments firstly through Strain B and Strain C re-ferments, secondly through employing the various chromatography techniques and lastly to help in extract preparations, and also to ferment Strain A and extract its metabolites for bioassay screenings. We found that the F series campaign samples did not produce any anti-bacterial metabolites and Strain A produced an anti-bacterial metabolite that was unstable in processing and storage. This was shown by its decreased anti-bacterial activity and hence Strain A was put on hold. Strain B produced a metabolite located in the 8:2 dichloromethane-methanol fraction in the dichloromethane layer and it managed to show pro-apoptotic activity, however its selectivity for Enzyme B was lost. This non-polar compound is currently being investigated using Preparation and Analytical high performance liquid chromatography. From this project we demonstrated the possibility of discovering and extracting useful metabolites produced by endophytes. Therefore we hope to inspire more researchers to study endophytes and their metabolites in order to discover more new drugs.