Research Article
Mycochemical Screening and Analysis, Antioxidant Activity, and
Biochemical Composition of Fermentation Strain Snef1216
(Penicillium chrysogenum)
Aatika Sikandar ,
1
Mengyue Zhang,
1
Yuanyuan Wang,
2
Xiaofeng Zhu,
1
Xiaoyu Liu,
3
Haiyan Fan,
1
Yuanhu Xuan,
4
Lijie Chen,
1
and Yuxi Duan
1
1
Nematology Institute of Northern China, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, Liaoning, China
2
College of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, Liaoning, China
3
College of Science, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, Liaoning, China
4
College of Plant Protection, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, Liaoning, China
Correspondence should be addressed to Yuxi Duan; duanyx6407@163.com
Received 5 December 2019; Revised 26 February 2020; Accepted 6 March 2020; Published 30 March 2020
Academic Editor: Krishna K. Verma
Copyright © 2020 Aatika Sikandar et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Antioxidants are the radical scavengers that inhibit peroxidation and other free-radical processes, which in return safeguard
different organisms from various diseases attributed to radical reactions. Synthetic antioxidants inhibit free radicals, but they also
have harmful side effects. However, mycochemicals of natural fungal origin are safe and best substitutes for harmful synthetic
chemical antioxidants. e prime objectives of the study include appropriate qualitative and quantitative mycochemical screening,
antioxidant potential, and chemical composition of Snef1216 (Penicillium chrysogenum). e study has used aluminium chloride
colourimetric method, Folin–Ciocalteu reagent assay, and DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) for analysis of total flavonoid
content and phenol content and antioxidant activity, respectively. However, the presence of biologically active compounds was
screened through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Quantitative analysis demonstrated the existence of fla-
vonoids, glycosides, flavones, saponins, phenols, and catecholic tannins excluding alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, and gallic
tannins. e outcomes exposed total flavonoid content and phenolic content in P. chrysogenum were 85.31 ± 1.23mg·QE/g and
135.77 ± 1.14mg·GAE/g, respectively. Snef1216 (P. chrysogenum) displayed the highest free-radical scavenging activity with
63.86% inhibition of DPPH. e analysis confirms that Snef1216 (P. chrysogenum) is an alternative source of natural antioxidants.
e obtained data have provided the foundation for its use in agricultural, environmental, and pharmaceutical industries.
1. Introduction
Free radicals are associated with numerous chronic and
acute diseases in human beings such as asthma, athero-
sclerosis cataracts, diabetes, liver injury, and neurodegen-
erative disorder [1]. Antioxidants are useful constituents that
are responsible for the inhibition of free radicals by abol-
ishing their target site [2]. ey have the capability to capture
free radicals such as hydroperoxide and peroxide which
constrain oxidation and cause degenerative arrays [3].
Synthetic antioxidants inhibit free radicals and also are have
harmful side effects [4]. However, natural resources of
mycochemicals are safe and better substitutes for chemical
antioxidants [5]. Fungi are an important source of natural
antioxidants because of their natural ability to produce
secondary metabolites [6]. ey contain antioxidants in the
form of steroids, quinones, alkaloids, phenylpropanoids,
tocopherol, phenols, tannins, lactones, terpenoids, tri-
terpenes carotenoids, and flavonoids [7].
Essential mycochemicals contained in fungi such as
phenolic contents have attained more interest due to their
characteristics to inhibit disease by their antioxidant activity.
Phenols and flavonoids are the major secondary metabolites
of fungi [6]. Moreover, phenolic and flavonoids contents of
Hindawi
Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry
Volume 2020, Article ID 3073906, 8 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/3073906