Abstract:
Endophytic fungi were isolated from two kinds of palm leaves (Arenga pinnata (Wurmb) Merrill and Borassodendron machadonis (Ridley) Becc from Kao Loung National Park at Nakorn Srithamarat Province during dry and wet season in 2008. Five hundred and sixteen endophytic fungi were isolated out of which three hundred and sixty three isolates were belonging to genus Xylaria and one hundred and fifty three isolates were belonging to other genera including Collectotichum spp., Pestalotiopsis spp., Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp. Xylariaceous fungi were the most found species among the isolates. The occurrence of Xylaria spp. were higher in wet season than in dry season. They were further classified into 15 taxa group by using morphological characteristics. Crude extracts of Xylaria spp. were tested for antimicrobial activity against reference microorganisms which included Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans, by agar well diffusion test and anticancer human cell lines including A375 (malignant melanoma), KatoIII (gastric carcinoma), SW620 (colorectal adenocarcinoma), HepG2 (liver hepatoblastoma), BT474 (breast carcinoma), Caski (cervical carcinoma cells) and Jurkat (T cell leukemia) by MTT method. The results show that Xylaria strain B316-1[superscript R] and A116-2[superscript R] were exhibited the highest broad-spectrum to indicator microorganisms. Xylaria strain A 317[superscript R] A518-2[superscript R] B115[superscript R] B127[superscript R] showed specific anti T-cell leukemia cell line (Jurkat) while strain B419[superscript R] showed specific activity against breast cancer cell line (BT474). Most of these strains induced apoptosis as determined by Hoechst stain under a fluorescent microscope.