Isolation and Characterization of Bioactive Compounds from Aspergillus Terreus : Antioxidant and Lipoxygenase Inhibitory Activities with Applications in Topical Cream Preparation

Ng, Hui Shan (2026) Isolation and Characterization of Bioactive Compounds from Aspergillus Terreus : Antioxidant and Lipoxygenase Inhibitory Activities with Applications in Topical Cream Preparation. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Skin diseases cause by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and proinflammatory factor such as lipoxygenase (LOX) become a significant health challenge. However, no study has done on formulating natural products using Aspergillus terreus bioactive compounds that showed potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, despite some adverse effects in synthetic antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. Hence, this study aimed to extract, isolate, determine the bioactive compounds from A. terreus, access their antioxidant (via DPPH, FRAP) and antiinflammatory (via 15-LOX) activities, investigate the mechanisms between the 15-LOX (PDB ID: 1IK3) enzyme and the compounds through molecular docking study, and lastly formulate a topical cream using the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) crude extract to test its anti-inflammatory ability. Liquid-liquid extraction and ultrasound-assisted extraction were used to extract the bioactive compounds, then column chromatography and preparative thin layer chromatography were applied to isolate the desired compounds. The structure characterisation was done with NMR, FT-IR, UV-Vis, HRESIMS and polarimeter. The finding revealed that 1.3464 g of EtOAc crude extract was obtained 2 new compounds, namely 4-(2-hydroxypropyl)-2,5- dimethoxy-3-methylbenzoic acid (1N, 3.3 mg) and propyl-4-(3,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dien-1-yl)- 2,6-dihydroxybenzoate (2N, 5.7 mg) were isolated. Both compounds displayed excellent activity in DPPH (EC50 less than 0.3906 and 8.5281 μg/mL, respectively) and 15-LOX (IC50 = 68.9258 ± 1.9643 and 22.6879 ± 0.7806 μg/mL, respectively) assays. However, they were not significant in FRAP assay. Docking studies showed 2N exhibited stronger binding energy (- 6.16 kcal/mol) than 1N (-4.16 kcal/mol), which aligned with the 15-LOX findings. A topical cream with EtOAc crude extract was formulated, although its anti-inflammatory activity was lower than the control. In conclusion, the discovery of two new compounds with good antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ability has expanded the chemical library. This study is significant in complying with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG3) and discovering a new natural topical cream. However, the topical cream formulation could be revised.