Isolation and Purification of Antifungal Compounds from the Green Microalga Chlorella vulgaris

Introduction: the current study aimed to purify antifungal compounds from chlorella vulgaris extracts, fractions, sub-fractions and pure compounds against different strains of mycotoxigenic fungi.materials and methods: antifungal activity was conducted using disc diffusion assay, tlc-bioautography and minimum inhibitory concentration (mic). isolation, purification and structure elucidation of antifungal compounds were carried out using column chromatography, thin layer chromatography (tlc), uv-vis spectrophotometer, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (gc-ms), and nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr).results: c. vulgaris diethyl ether extract (dee) showed the highest antifungal activity against all tested fungi with inhibition zone from 11.5 to 21.9 mm. by fractionation of dee, fraction f3 (chloroform:methanol, 50:50) and f5 (methanol 100%); sub-fraction cf3-10 and cf5-10 exhibited antifungal activity against all tested fungi. two pure compounds, hydroxyphenophytin b and hexadecanoic acid methyl ester, with antifungal activity were isolated from cf3-10 and cf5-10, respectively.conclusions: c. vulgaris dee and isolated compounds can be used as promising antifungal agents from natural sources against mycotoxigenic fungi at post-harvest or storage stages.