1-Eicosane, A Hydrocarbon from Curvularia lunata an endophytic fungi isolated from bark tissue of Ficus religiosa

The aim of the present study was to confirm the presence of bioactive secondary metabolite, 1-Eicosane from the endophtic fungi Curvularia lunataisolated from the bark of the tree Ficus religiosa. Curvularia lunataproduced1-Eicosane, an unsaturated hydrocarbon in the crude extract after three weeks of incubation in Potato Dextrose media using ethyl acetate as the organic solvent. The compound was separated by column chromatography and further analysis of the compound was done by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC), Ultra Violet (UV), Fourier Transform- Raman (FT-R) analysis, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Gas-Chromatography - Mass spectroscopy (GC-MASS).The mass spectrum of the compound showed the highest peakand the compound was identified as the straight chain hydrocarbon, 1-Eicosane, with the molecular formula CH3CH2(18)CH3. The structure is further confirmed by comparison of the spectrum obtained with the mass spectrum of Eicosane from the GC-MS database WILEY and NIST respectively. Thus, the the endophytic fungi Curvularia Lunata serves as an alternative source for 1- Eicosane production which is used as a fuel in automobile industry.