UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Entomopathogenic fungi are important biological control agents, and their secondary metabolites may contribute to the development of alternative tools for insect pest management. This laboratory study evaluated crude secondary metabolite extraction from selected entomopathogenic fungi cultured on different synthetic and natural media. Four fungi, namely Isaria fumosorosea, Metarhizium anisopliae, Beauveria bassiana and Lecanicillium lecanii, were grown on synthetic agar and broth media, cereal grains, vegetables, cashew apple, rice gruel, tender coconut water and sugarcane juice, with or without supplementation with baker’s yeast or insect homogenate. Crude metabolites were extracted with ethyl acetate after fungal growth and quantified as yield per unit medium. Among synthetic media, metabolite yield was generally low, with the highest value recorded for B. bassiana in potato dextrose broth. Among cereal grains, red rice and broken sorghum supported comparatively higher metabolite recovery, particularly for L. lecanii. In vegetable media, potato supplemented with insect homogenate produced the highest crude metabolite yield for B. bassiana. Cashew apple supported comparatively better metabolite production by M. rileyi, although this fungus was evaluated only in this medium. Among natural liquid media, sugarcane juice was the most productive medium for M. anisopliae and I. fumosorosea, with M. anisopliae producing up to 3.677 g/25 ml when sugarcane juice was supplemented with insect homogenate. Tender coconut water supported the highest yield for B. bassiana among natural liquid media, whereas L. lecanii produced comparatively lower yields. Overall, the study indicates that selected natural liquid media, especially sugarcane juice, can support higher crude metabolite recovery than synthetic media under laboratory conditions.