Production of Cyclosporine A by Submerged Fermentation from a Local Isolate of Penicillium fellutanum

Six locally isolated strains of Penicillium were checked for their potential to produce cyclosporine A through submerged fermentation. The medium used for drug production was composed of glucose, 5%; peptone, 1%; KH2PO4, 0.5% and KCl, 0.25% (w/v). Butyl acetate was used to extract the fermentation medium for cyclosporine 'A' analysis. The confirmation analysis was done through high performance liquid chromatography and the chromatograms obtained were compared with that of Sandimmun Neoral (®)capsule (Novartis) containing 100 mg of cyclosporine and with the external standard cyclosporine A 98.5% pure. Only chromatogram of Penicillium fellutanum (FCBP 937) isolated from Guava fruit showed a peak at 2.768, which was comparable with both the standards. The amount of drug calculated was 16.18 μg/ml.