Anticancer and anti-inflammatory activity and untargeted metabolite profiling by UPLC-ESI-QTOF of crude extracts of mangrove endophytic fungus Aspergillus stellatus LM-03

Mangrove ecosystem is diverse habitat for number of medicinally important microorganisms including fungi. Scientific research from last three decade emphasises it potential in important secondary metabolites production, which have wide biological activities. The current study elaborates isolation of fungi from pneumatophore of mangrove plant Avicennia marina and investigation of ethyl acetate extract for antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity. Ethyl acetate extract of the fungus displayed maximum anti-inflammatory activity with 76.39% inhibition for by protein denaturation method and 22.52% inhibition for membrane stabilisation method with respect to standard ibuprofen. Further, the anticancer activity of Aspergillus stellatus LM-03 exhibited against MCF-7 of breast cancer cell with an IC₅₀ value of 33.24 µg/ml. HPLC and UPLC-ESI-QTOF analysis displayed nine compound mainly alternariol monomethyl ether and methyl jasmonate, which are highly anticancer activity and moderate anti-inflammatory activity with other compounds as angelic anhydride, DL-3-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)lactic acid, 8,9-epoxyl-3-isobutyryloxy-10-(2-methylbutanoyl)thymol, 5-(6-methyl-7-oxooctyl) furan-2(5H)-one and phenyl-butyryl-glutamine with an unidentified compounds. The results of the current study indicate that it may be worthwhile to investigate Aspergillus stellatus LM-03 extract for promising bioactive metabolites with potential for medicinal use.