In vitro Antioxidant activity, FTIR analysis and Total Phenolic content of Endophytic Fungus Penicillium sp. isolated from Boerhaavia diffusa L

Endophytes from medicinal plants are a significant source of various novel biologically active secondary metabolites. Endophytic fungi are a group of fungi that colonize the internal part of the plants without causing any immediate harmful effects. Our study mainly focuses on the isolation and identification of endophytic fungi from the medicinal plant Boerhaavia diffusa Linn belonging to the family Nyctaginaceae. Penicillium sp., a fungal endophyte isolated from Boerhaavia diffusa L. leaves for their bioactive potential. The fungal culture was further grown and extracted by various solvents such as dichloromethane (DCM), butanol and methanol. Different crude extracts were used to study their phytochemical composition, total phenolic content, 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The present study reveals that phytochemical screening of different fungal crude extracts indicates the presence of phenol, flavonoids, saponins, tannin, and terpenoids. Dichloromethane crude extract exhibited the highest total phenolic content of 14.4±0.018mg of GAE/g of extract and DPPH scavenging activity of 96% when compared to other solvent extracts. FTIR analysis revealed various functional groups of the compounds present in the extracts. The results indicated that the endophytic fungi Penicillium sp. isolated from medicinal plant Boerhaavia diffusa L. could be a significant source of bioactive compounds.