Bioprospecting bioactive metabolites from Aspergillus fumigatus: identification, culture optimization, spectroscopic profiling, and evaluation of antifungal and antioxidant potential.

Fungi are responsible for many infectious diseases, and the transmission continues. Despite the availability of many drugs, the severity and the frequency have been increasing for years. In light of this tragic scenario, there is a requirement to unfold bioactive molecules from herbal plants. Thus our research was pushed forward to isolate, recognize, and assess the bioactivites of fungal endophytes from Terminalia catappa. Finally, the isolated endophytic fungi were identified as Aspergillus fumigatus through ITS gene sequencing and selected for further study on the influence of culture conditions and nutritional factors on the growth inhibition of Fusarium spp., the production of phytochemicals, and antioxidant properties. The highest biological activity was seen in the 6-day-old Aspergillus fumigatus culture, and maltose-potassium nitrate is the chosen C and N source. The extract of the fungus has been obtained from the mass cultivation in selective media, partially purified through chromatography, and examined for antifungal properties against a diversity of pathogenic microorganisms. The results showed a noticeable antimicrobial exertion against Fusarium proliferatum, Fusarium fujikuroi, & Fusarium oxysporum. Furthermore, we have tested the potential of antioxidant activity and the phytochemical profiling of the Aspergillus fumigatus extracts using various methods. N-butanolic extract of selected fungi showed prominent bioactivity against F. fujikuroi, and the minimum inhibitory concentration was evaluated. The chemical profiling of the fungus extract was recognized via GC-MS and the structural characterization through FT-IR which indicates the presence of approximately 6 antifungal compounds with different functional groups.