Mass culturing of lichen mycobionts for bioactive secondary metabolites production a pilot scale study

Abstract

Lichens are dual organisms encompass photobiont and mycobiont Lichens produce wide variety of secondary metabolites which are bioactive in nature in terms of their activities These lichen secondary metabolites are being produced by mycobiont partner belong to phenolic groups In order to explore the biological potential of these lichen secondary metabolites massive amount of lichens is essential which in turn demands the depletion of natural resources The present study emphasizes the mass culturing of lichen mycobionts under submerged culture conditions to produce bioactive secondary metabolites of pharmacological prominence in terms of total phenol content The survey results of lichens population in Yercaud and Kolli Hills belonging to Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu India indicated that Parmeliaceae is the dominant lichen family with 29 of lichen population The targeted lichen communities belonging to Parmotrema genus under which Parmotrema grayanum Parmotrema reticulatum Parmotrema austrosinense and Parmotrema tinctorum were given much importance in the present study GCMS analysis also supported the presence of prominent secondary metabolites such as atranorin and chloratronorin in the methanolic extracts Based on the phytochemical screening methanol was found to be the promising solvent hence used for assessing the biological activities newline