Prospecting the antimicrobial and antibiofilm potential of Chaetomium globosum an endophytic fungus from Moringa oleifera.

The current study prospects the antimicrobial potential of an endophytic fungus Chaetomium globosum which showed a wide spectrum antimicrobial activity against the tested pathogenic microorganisms. This is apparently the first report where Chaetomium globosum as an endophyte from Moringa oleifera showed antimicrobial potential and is optimized for physiochemical parameters to enhance the antimicrobial metabolites production. In the classical optimization yeast peptone dextrose medium, inoculum size of two discs, incubation period of 6 days, production temperature of 25 ºC and pH 7 was best supportive for optimal growth and antimicrobial activity whereas maltose and ammonium nitrate were the best carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. The statistical optimization resulted in up to 1.33 fold increase in antimicrobial activity. Chloroform was found to be the best extractant. The chloroformic extract showed minimum inhibitory concentration ranging from 0.05 to 5 mg/ml and its microbicidal nature was established by viable cell count studies. The efficacy of the extract was also established in terms of post antibiotic effect which ranged from 2 to 20 h. The chloroformic extract exhibited the good antibiofilm potential and was also found to be biosafe. The clinical relevance of the study was justified as it showed good antimicrobial efficacy against some resistant clinical isolates, too.