Bioactive secondary metabolites from Nigrospora sp LLGLM003, an endophytic fungus of the medicinal plant Moringa oleifera Lam.

An endophytic fungus was isolated from the root of the medicinal plant Moringa oleifera Lam. Based on analyzing the rDNA sequence, the fungus was identified as Nigrospora sp. This is the first report of the isolation of endophytic Nigrospora from M. oleifera. By bioassay-guided fractionation, four antifungal secondary metabolites were isolated from liquid cultures of the fungus Nigrospora sp. LLGLM003, and their chemical structures were determined to be griseofulvin (1), dechlorogriseofulvin (2), 8-dihydroramulosin (3) and mellein (4) on the basis of spectroscopic analyses. Compound 2, 3 and 4 were isolated from Nigrospora sp. for the first time. In vitro antifungal assay showed that griseofulvin displayed clear inhibition of the growth of 8 plant pathogenic fungi. Dechlorogriseofulvin and mellein exhibited only weak antifungal activities, whereas 8-dihydroramulosin displayed no antifungal activities.