Antibacterial Activity of Fungal Endophytes Isolated from Wattakaka volubilis (Linn.f.), A medicinal plant from Telangana, India.

Received: 23/Jan/2019, Accepted: 10/Feb/2019, Online: 28/Feb/2019 Abstract─ Endophytic fungi are known to produce a wide range of metabolites of pharmacological importance. Endophytes associated with medicinal plants are targets for intensive research. This research paper deals with the endophytic fungi isolated from Wattakaka volubili also known as Dudipala, a high valued medicinal plant in traditional medicine. A total of 39 fungal species representing mostly imperfect fungi were isolated from different plant parts. The fungal species varied with geographic and environmental conditions of the same host species. Among different genera, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Phoma and mycelia sterilia were dominant. Solvent extracts of five endophytic fungi viz Aspergillus oryzae, Diplodia andamanensis, Fusarium graminearum, Penicillium rubrum and Rhizoctonia bataticola were tested against four human pathogenic bacteria, Antibacterial activity varied with the fungus as well as solvent. The inhibitory activity is very prominent on E.coli. Hexanol and chloroform extracts activity is very close to streptomycin. In light of these observations it is recommended that the pure extracts need to further test for antibacterial activity.