Abstract
Soil is considered an extensively explored ecological niche for microorganisms that produce useful biologically active natural products suitable for pharmaceutical applications. The current study aimed at investigating biological activities and metabolic profiles of three fungal strains identified from different desert sites in Saudi Arabia. Soil fungal isolates were collected from AlQasab, Tabuk, and Almuzahimiyah in Saudi Arabia and identified. Furthermore, their antibacterial activity was investigated against
Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Klebsiella pneumonia,
and
Escherichia coli
in blood, nutrient, and Sabouraud dextrose agars. Moreover, fungal extracts were evaluated on cell viability/proliferation against human breast carcinoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. To identify the biomolecules of the fungal extracts, High-performance liquid chromatography HPLC–DAD coupled to analytical LC–QTOF-MS method was employed for fungal ethyl acetate crude extract. Identified fungal isolates,
Chaetomium
sp.
Bipolaris
sp. and
Fusarium venenatum
showed varied inhibitory activity against tested microbes in relation to crude extract, microbial strain tested, and growth media.
F. venenatum
showed higher anticancer activity compared to
Chaetomium
sp
.
and
Bipolaris
sp
.
extracts against four of the tested cancer cell lines. Screening by HPLC and LC/MS-QTOF identified nine compounds from
Chaetomium
sp. and three from
Bipolaris
sp. however, for
F. venenatum
extracts compounds were not fully identified. In light of the present findings, some biological activities of fungal extracts were approved in vitro
, s
uggesting that such extracts could be a useful starting point to find compounds that possess promising agents for medical applications. Further investigations to identify exact biomolecules from
F. venenatum
extracts are needed.