ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF RED PIGMENT ISOLATED FROM COASTAL ENDOPHYTIC FUNGI AGAINST MULTI-DRUG RESISTANT BACTERIA

Abstrak

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections have become a serious problem for the last several decades. To solve this issue, the finding of new antibiotic candidates is an urgency. Natural pigment is known to have biological activity against pathogenic bacteria. Coastal fungi are an unexplored source of natural pigment to fight MDR bacteria. This research was aimed to isolate coastal endophytic fungi from smooth ant plant (Hydnophytum formicarum), to screen endophytic fungi that produce red pigment, to extract the red pigment, to determine antibacterial activity of the red pigment, and to identify the coastal endophytic fungi producing the red pigment. In this study, seven fungi were isolated as endophytic fungi from H. formicarum. There were three isolates that produced extracellular pigment, i.e., RS 1A produced red pigment, RS 3 produced black pigment, and RS 6A produced yellow pigment. Our study focused on the red pigment which was produced by endophytic fungus strain RS 1A. The yield of red pigment was 8.8657% (w/w). This study showed that red pigment had antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Proteus mirabilis strain MDR. Based on molecular and morphological identification, the endophytic fungus strain RS 1A was identified as Aspergillus versicolor.