Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of different extracts from Aspergillus unguis SPMD-EGY grown on different media

Background Recently, researchers demonstrate the importance of associated microorganisms as potential sources of bioactive natural products. Especially, marine-derived fungi consider a treasure of new pharmaceutical leads due to the chemical diversity of their secondary metabolites. Results Aspergillus unguis SPMD-EGY was isolated from the soft coral Sinularia sp. and was cultivated on different media. Three broth media potato dextrose broth (PDB), peptone yeast extract malt extract glucose (PYMG), and Dox media in addition to one solid medium (rice medium) were used for this purpose. The fungus was grown under shake and static conditions (for broth media only). Ethyl acetate extract from both mycelia and culture supernatant and the extract from the direct extraction of rice solid medium were tested for their antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. It has been found that PYMG medium (mycelia static and culture static) exhibited the highest antimicrobial activity against all test microbes except Aspergillus niger followed by PDB medium (culture static and mycelia static). From the antioxidant point of view, the PDB medium showed the highest antioxidant activity (culture-shake) followed by Dox medium (culture static and mycelia static). The obtained results have been assessed and compared to the results of previous works constructed. GC/MS analysis of the fungal extracts showing high significant antimicrobial activities was evaluated. Conclusion Three different culture media were tested for the cultivation of the locally isolated fungus Aspergillus unguis isolate SPMD-EGY and were tested as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents. It has been found that growth media and growth incubation conditions have a very important role in secondary metabolites production.