Anti-pancreatic Cancer Potential of Secalonic Acid Derivatives from Endophytic Fungi Isolated from Ocimum basilicum

Abstract

The word endophyte means “in the plant” and refers to all microorganisms that live in the intercellular
spaces of stems, petioles, roots and leaves of plants causing no apparent symptoms of disease. Seven endophytic
fungi were isolated from the medicinal plant of Ocimum basilicum L. The fungal strain, labeled as 2L, was cultivated
at large scale on the potato dextrose agar semi solid medium and was extracted with ethyl acetate. Normal phase
silica gel column chromatography of the ethyl acetate extract afforded ergosterol (1), secalonic acid A (2) and
secalonic acid D (3). The structures of these compounds (1-3) were elucidated unequivocally by UV, IR, MS, a series
of 1D & 2D NMR analyses. The cytotoxicity of these compounds was evaluated by the MTT assay against human
pancreatic cancer cell line. Secalonic acid A (2) and secalonic acid D (3) exhibited significant anti-pancreatic cancer
activity with IC50 values of 7.3 and 1.6 μM, respectively.