Comparative Studies on the Antioxidant Activity of Fungal Endophytes

Endophytic fungi, by definition are the fungi which spend the whole or part of their lifecycle, colonizing inter or intracellularly the healthy tissues of host plants typically without causing apparent symptoms of disease.and without any immediate, negative overt results .with the only exception that the fruit bearing structure of the fungus may emerge out of the plant tissue for reproduction. A newly emerged leaf or any part of the plant may be colonized by a variety of fungal colonies in an symptomatic or in some cases, symbiotic manner. The aim of the present study is to scientifically validate the antioxidant activity of methanolic and aqueous extracts of endophytic fungi. The plant endophytes under the present study were Phoma sp., Colletotrichum spiralis, Chaetomium sp.(1) and Chaetomium sp.(2).Endophytes were cultured in Potato dextrose broth. The total phenolic content of the four different fungal extracts were determined by using Folin-ciocalteau reagent method and DPPH (1,1- diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl)radical assay to determine the percentage of radical scavenging activity was also performed for the four analytes.