Diversity, Chemical Constituents, and Biological Activities of Endophytic Fungi Isolated From Hort

The objective of this study was to evaluate the diversity of endophytic fungi of different parts of Hort (CX) and further characterize their biological activities and identify chemical compounds produced by these endophytic fungi. A total of 21 endophytic fungi were isolated and identified from CX. , sp., and sp. were identified as promising strains by the color reaction. Comparing different organic extracts of the three strains, it was observed that the ethyl acetate extract of and sp. and the -butanol extract of sp. showed significant antioxidant and antibacterial activities. The ethyl acetate extracts of had outstanding antioxidant and antibacterial effects, and its radical scavenging rates for ABTS and DPPH were 98.43 ± 0.006% and 90.11 ± 0.032%, respectively. At the same time, their IC values were only 0.18 ± 0.02 mg/mL and 0.04 ± 0.003 mg/mL. The ethyl acetate extract of showed MIC value of only 0.5 mg/mL against and . By liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), we found that could produce many high-value polyphenols, such as hesperidin (36.06 μmol/g), ferulic acid (1.17 μmol/g), and alternariol (12.64 μmol/g), which can be a potential resource for the pharmaceutical industry. In conclusion, these results increase the diversity of CX endophytic fungi and the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of their secondary metabolites.