Isolation and Identification of the Antimicrobial Agent Beauvericin from the Endophytic Fusarium oxysporum 5-19 with NMR and ESI-MS/MS

Endophytic microbe has been proved to be one of rich sources of bioactive natural products with potential application for new drug and pesticide discovery. One cyclodepsipeptide, beauvericin, was firstly isolated from the fermentation broth of Fusarium oxysporum 5-19 endophytic on Edgeworthia chrysantha Linn. Its chemical structure was unambiguously identified by a combination of spectroscopic methods, such as HRESI-MS and (1)H and (13)C NMR. ESI-MS/MS was successfully used to elucidate the splitting decomposition route of the positive molecule ion of beauvericin. Antimicrobial results showed that this cyclodepsipeptide had inhibitory effect on three human pathogenic microbes, Candida albicans, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus. In particular, beauvericin exhibited the strongest antimicrobial activity against S. aureus with MIC values of 3.91 μM, which had similar effect with that of the positive control amoxicillin.