Antitumor and antifungal activities in endophytic fungi isolated from pharmaceutical plants Taxus mairei, Cephalataxus fortunei and Torreya grandis

The purpose of this work was to screen the endophytic fungi having antitumo r or antifungal activity, which were isolated from the inner barks of three kinds of pharmaceutical plants, Taxus mairei, Cephalataxus fortunei and To rreya grandis, collected from Fujian province, China. Antitumor activity wa s studied by the MTT assay and antifungal activity was determined by observ ing fungal growth inhibition. 13.4% of endophytic fungi fermentation broths displayed cytotoxic activity on HL-60 cells at and below a dilution of 1:5 0, and 6.4% on KB cells. 52.3% of endophytic fungi fermentation broths disp layed growth inhibition on at least one pathogenic fungi, such as Neurospor a sp., Trichoderma sp. and Fusarium sp. Among all endophytic, fungi isolate d, the genus Paecilomyces sp. has the highest positive rate of antitumor an d antifungal activity. These results indicate that endophytic fungi could b e a promising source for antitumor and antifungal bioactive agents. (C) 200 1 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.