Taxol production by an endophytic fungus, Cladosporium and #8206; cladosporioides isolated from Catheranthus roseus

Different endopthytic fungi isolated from Catheranthus roseus were tested for their ability to produce Taxol. Taxol extracted from fermentation culture of the isolated fungus Cladosporium‎ cladosporioides was identified by UV, TLC, mass spectroscopy and HPLC. The isolated strain was identified as Cladosporium‎ cladosporioides based on morphological characteristics and the analysis of the 18S rDNA sequence. HPLC quantification of fungal Taxol showed that Cladosporium‎ cladosporioides was capable of producing 700µg/l of Taxol on potato dextrose broth. The optimum culture conditions for Taxol production by the isolated Cladosporium‎ cladosporioides were tested on M1D medium after 10 days of incubation at 25 °C, pH 5.5 in the presence of sucrose and ammonium tartrate as carbon and nitrogen sources respectively. Also different concentrations of benzoic acid, 4-hydroxy benzoic acid, vanadyl sulphate, serinol and salicylic acid were evaluated for their inducing activity on Taxol production by the isolated endophytic fungus. This study offers important information and a new source for the production of the important anticancer drug Taxol by endophytic fungus fermentation. The antitumor activity of fungal Taxol was tested against human tumor cell line HepG-2 (liver carcinoma) using in vitro clonogenic assays.