Identification of Volatile Organic Compounds from Trichoderma virens (6011) by GC-MS and Separation of a Bioactive Compound via Nanotechnology

Fungal volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have the potential of being used as biocontrol agents for biotechnological applications in agriculture, industry and medicine. In this research, different VOCs from secondary metabolites of biocontrol fungus Trichoderma virens (6011) KP671477 were separated using n-hexane, n-butanol and methanol solvents and identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) device. According to mass spectra library searching, more than 200 volatile compounds (with spectral match factor higher than 80%) such as alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, organic acids, aromatic compounds, aldehyde, etheric, esteric, phenolic, kenotic derivatives and, sulfur and nitrogen compounds, have been detected. Some of the VOCs such as di-butyl phthalate (DBP) had antifungal activity.  The antifungal effect of DBP as a case study was checked and confirmed in in-vitro conditions. DBP as a bioactive compound was separated from secondary metabolites using Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) as a solid sorbent. Two kinds of the MIPs were synthesized via bulk polymerization and precipitation polymerization.  Nanoporous MIPs for DBP, with binding capacity ca.462 mg.g-1 and the specific surface area 479m2.g-1 were synthesized via bulk polymerization method while the synthesized MIPs via precipitation technique had the binding capacity ca.830 mg.g-1 with specific surface area 690 m2.g-1. The synthesized MIPs were evaluated by scan electron microscopy (SEM) device and Brunner Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. Results showed that, the MIPs nanotechnology can be suggested as a suitable alternative method for separation of the chemical toxins. This study introduces a simple method under laboratory conditions to separate the bioactive compounds from fungal secondary metabolites.