Background: The emergence of multiple-drug resistance bacteria has become a major threat and thus calls for an urgent need
to search for new effective and safe anti-bacterial agents.
Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the anticancer and antibacterial activities of secondary metabolites from
Penicillium sp.
,
an endophytic fungus associated with leaves of
Garcinia nobilis
.
Methods: The culture filtrate from the fermentation of
Penicillium sp. was extracted and analyzed by liquid chromatography–
mass spectrometry, and the major metabolites were isolated and identified by spectroscopic analyses and by comparison with
published data. The antibacterial activity of the compounds was assessed by broth microdilution method while the anticancer
activity was determined by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay.
Results: The fractionation of the crude extract afforded penialidin A-C (1-3), citromycetin (4), p-hydroxyphenylglyoxalaldoxime
(5) and brefelfin A (6). All of the compounds tested here showed antibacterial activity (MIC = 0.50 – 128 μg/mL) against Gramnegative
multi-drug resistance bacteria,
Vibrio cholerae
(causative agent of dreadful disease cholera) and
Shigella flexneri
(causative
agent of shigellosis), as well as the significant anticancer activity (LC
50 = 0.88 – 9.21 μg/mL) against HeLa cells.
Conclusion: The results obtained indicate that compounds 1-6 showed good antibacterial and anticancer activities with no
toxicity to human red blood cells and normal Vero cells.
