Vincamine-producing endophytic fungus isolated from Vinca minor

Vinca minor is a plant containing the alkaloid vincamine, which is used in the pharmaceutical industry as a cerebral stimulant and vasodilator. The objective of this study was to determine whether endophytic fungi isolated from V. minor produce vincamine. Primary screening was carried out using Dragendorff's and Mayer's reactions, and strain re-selection was made by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to identify the fermentation products of the selected strain. We isolated 10 endophytic fungal strains from V. minor. An extract from one (Vm-J2), showed positive reactions with both Dragendorff's and Mayer's reagents. The strain had a component with the same TLC Rf value and HPLC retention time as authentic vincamine. Therefore, the fungus appeared to produce the same bioactive ingredient, vincamine, as the host plant. The prospect of using endophytic fungi to produce the phytoactive compound by fungal fermentation is discussed.