IN-VITRO BIOACTIVE POTENTIAL OF ENDOPHYTIC FUNGI CURVULARIA LUNATA ISOLATED FROM MEDICINAL PLANT FICUS RELIGIOSA

Several studies undertaken in the recent past have demonstrated that endophytic fungi are capable of producing a number of important bioactive secondary metabolites, hitherto known only from plants, thereby raising the potential of using endophytes as alternative sources for these metabolites. Occasionally, the compounds produced by endophytic fungi are similar to those produced by the respective host plants. The plant chosen for the current study has significant medicinal and therapeutic value, and endophytic fungi were isolated from the leaves of this plant. The leaves have been specifically chosen for this study as there is significant evidence suggesting that the leaf extracts of these plants have higher medicinal value. The hypothesis of this current study is that endophytic fungi isolated from leaves of the medicinal plant and its extract would exhibit similar or greater medicinal properties as that of leaf extracts. This work intends to highlight the bioactive potential of endophytic fungus Curvularia lunata isolated from Ficus religiosa. Extracts obtained from the fungi understudy were tested in-vitro for their possible applications as anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory agents.