Evaluation of the chemical constituents and potential biological activities of Cunninghamella blakesleeana

Abstract

The aim of this work is to evaluate the chemical constituents and potential biological activists of Cunninghamella blakesleeana. Three fatty acids were isolated using column chromatography and identified as palmitic acid (F1), oleic acid (F2) and stearic acid (F3) in addition to other two steroidal compounds; α-amyrin (A4), and β-sitosterol (A5). Using GC, ten fatty acids were detected the major fatty acid obtained was stearic acid (74.61%) while palmitic acid was the second high percentage (10.35%), and the least percentage obtained was arachidic acid (0.07%). C. blakesleeana extract showed in-vitro antimicrobial activities against some microorganisms. The highest activity of C. blakesleeana total extract was reported against Staphylococcus aureus (18.3 ± 0.03 mm.) followed by Streptococcus pyogenes (15.3 ± 0.05), while the lowest were for both Candida albicans & Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6.7 ± 0.06 and 5.9.0 ± 0.9 mm. respectively). The three isolated compounds (F1-3) showed activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Penicillium expansum, and Salmonella typhimurium only. The highest activity was aganist Staphylococcus aureus (13.0 ± 0.1 mm.). The highest effect was obtained by compound F3 (stearic acid) (15.0 ± 0.5 mm.), and compound F1 (oleic acid) (13.0 ± 0.1 mm.) and F2 (palmitic acid) 11.0 ± 0.3 mm. The total ethanol extract of the investigated fungus was safe up to 5000 mg kg −1 and did not produce any significant change in liver and kidney functions after oral administration (400 mg kg −1 ) for 14 consecutive days. The results reported the isolation of some fungal new driving compounds which has been not isolated before from Cunninghamella species in addition to their correlated new biological activities.

The chemical composition, total phenolic and antioxidant content of four date palm saudi cultivars

“…The dried crushed date's flesh of each variety under investigation (500 g) was separately extracted by percolation [10] in methanol-water (4:1) (v/v) for two days at room temperature. The obtained methanol extracts were individually filtered off, and the leftover dates flesh parts were re-extracted four times till exhaustion using the same method.…”

Bioactive metabolites of Cunninghamella, Biodiversity to Biotechnology

“…The maximum antimicrobial activity of Cunninghamella blakesleeana alcohol extract was reported against Staphylococcus aureus this was followed by Streptococcus pyogenes. On the other side, the maximum antimicrobial activity was reported against for both Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa [17]. Cunninghamella blakesleeana has been also reported to produce many fatty acids.…”

“…About ten of them were detected. Stearic acid was the major fatty acid isolated from C. blakesleeana (74.61%), palmitic acid was considered the second high percentage (10.35%), however, docosanoic acid showed the least percentage (0.01%) [17]. These lipids can be applied in various industries such as essential oils, natural food colors, spice, and oleoresins.…”

“…The endophytic fungus, Cunninghamella sp., is considered an enormous source of chemical leads with promising biological activities. Different Cunninghamella species have proved their ability to produce plenty of secondary metabolites including fatty acids (Palmitic acid, oleic acid and stearic acid) in addition to two steroidal compounds; α-amyrin (A4), and β-sitosterol with various biological activities, such as antifungal and antibacterial [17][18][19]. Cunninghamella species capable to produced different enzymes that can perform both phase I and phase II biotransformations [20].…”