Study on the Chemical Composition of Liquid Culture of Honeysuckle Firmicutes
Phellinus loniceranus (Bond.) Bond Et Sing is a porous fungus belonging to the genus Trichoderma, and its dried fruiting body is one of the medicinal fungi, Sanghuang. It is also a commonly used medicinal herb in the Tujia ethnic group and is included in the 2009 edition of the “Quality Standards for Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hubei Province”. Sanghuang is currently internationally recognized as one of the best medicinal fungi with anti-cancer effects. As the fungus used in Sanghuang, P linteus， Botrytis cinerea P Baumii and other closely related varieties of Lonicera japonica have been reported to have anti-cancer activity. The research team conducted preliminary studies on the chemical composition, anti-tumor activity, and quality control of the fruiting bodies of Lonicera japonica var. japonica. However, due to the influence of climate conditions, geographical distribution, and host plants, wild Sanghuang resources are rare and endangered. Artificial fermentation of Sanghuang can easily control and optimize various growth influencing factors, and obtain stable and high-yield cultures. In order to explore the potential value of replacing wild Sanghuang fruiting bodies with Sanghuang based bacterial cultures, and to explore the commonalities between fermentation cultures and fruiting bodies, this study investigated the chemical components in the culture medium and mycelium of Lonicera japonica and tested the in vitro anti-tumor activity of monomeric compounds, in order to provide reference for replacing fruiting bodies with Sanghuang cultures to obtain relevant active compounds.

In this study, 10 compounds were isolated from liquid cultures of Lonicera japonica fungi. Except for compounds 5, 6, and 7, the remaining 7 compounds were isolated from this fungus for the first time. Compounds 5-7 are ergosterol compounds, and there are also a large number of ergosterol compounds in the fruiting bodies of Lonicera japonica, indicating that the mycelium of Sanghuang fungi may have the potential to replace fruiting bodies in terms of sterol compounds. Compounds 1-4 are cyclic dipeptides. There have been studies reporting the isolation and identification of 14 compounds of this type in the fermentation broth and mycelium of the Sanghuang fungus Firmicutes. However, only cyclic (light valine) dipeptides have been reported in the fruiting body of Lonicera japonica, indicating the presence of cyclic dipeptides in both the fruiting body and fermentation culture of Lonicera japonica. Meanwhile, in vitro cytotoxic activity showed that compounds 1-4 exhibited varying degrees of inhibitory activity against HGC-27 and RL95-2 cell lines, with compound 3 showing the strongest inhibitory activity, with IC50 values of 6.69 μ M and 12.81 μ M, respectively, against HGC-27 and RL95-2 cell lines. The above research indicates that metabolites and fruiting bodies in the culture of Sanghuang based fungi share some common chemical components and pharmacological effects. Therefore, increasing research on the active ingredients and pharmacological activities in Sanghuang based fungal cultures can provide a new solution for the industrial production and sustainable utilization of active ingredients in Sanghuang like fungi.