Diversity and biological activities of endophytic fungi isolated from Azadirachta indica

Endophytic fungi colonizes within every plant tissues and it has been considered as the source of new natural products with potential pharmaceutical applications. Hence we isolated Endophytic fungifrom the medicinal plant Azadirachta indica and investigated for phytochemicals, total phenolic content, antioxidant by DPPH assay, antidiabetic by a-amylase inhibition assay and antibacterial activity by agar well diffusion method. Totally five fungi were isolated and one fungus was selected based on phytochemical studies for further assays. The results revealed that the ethyl acetate extract of F5 fungus showed highest total phenolic content of 116.72±0.04 mg of GAE/g. It also had DPPH scavenging activity of 65.86% and a-amylase inhibition of 38.52% at the concentration of 150µg/ml. The remaining fungal extracts exhibit significant level of total phenolic and antioxidant activity. The dichloro methane and ethyl acetate extract showed antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia. This study concludes that the endophytic fungi isolated from Azadirachta indica can be a potential source for pharmaceutical applications.