Isolation, characterization and pharmacological investigations of secondary metabolites from Aspergillus ficuum via experimental and computational techniques†

Fungal metabolites are known for their broad therapeutic effects. In this context, the fungal strain of Aspergillus ficuum (FCBP-DNA-1266) was examined for its secondary metabolites and in vivo activities. This led to the isolation of naphtho-gamma-pyrone (aurasperone B) and a sterol (ergosterol), characterized using advanced spectroscopic techniques such as ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR. The isolated metabolites were evaluated for their in vivo anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities utilizing an animal model. The study showed that both metabolites have significant pharmacological effects (P ≤ 0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, in silico analysis was employed to aid the in vivo anti-inflammatory activity and the molecular docking results were in agreement with the experimental findings. For the first time, we present the pharmacological activities and 2D NMR of aurasperone B, which will shed light on the bioactive potential of secondary metabolites of Aspergillus ficuum.