earticle

영어

Phyllosticta melochiae, an endophytic fungus isolated from the healthy leaves of Melochia corchorifolia, wasscreened for the production of an anticancer drug, taxol on modified liquid medium and potato dextrose broth medium inculture for the first time. The presence of taxol was confirmed by spectroscopic and chromatographic methods of analysis. Theamount of taxol produced by this fungus was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography. The maximum amountof fungal taxol production was recorded as 274µg/L. The production rate was increased to 5.5×1,000 fold than that found inthe culture broth of earlier reported fungus, Taxomyces andreanae. The fungal taxol extracted also showed a strong cytotoxicactivity in the in vitro culture of tested human cancer cells by apoptotic assay. The results designate that the fungal endophyte,P. melochiae is an excellent candidate for an alternate source of taxol supply and can serve as a potential species for geneticengineering to enhance the production of taxol to a higher level.