The endophytic fungal strain KJ-1 was isolated from the symptomless tissue of stem bark of M. azedarach L., which was collected at Yangling, Shaanxi province, China, in August 2011. The producing strain was cultured on a plate of potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium at 28 ± 0.5 °C for 5 days. Then one piece (approximately 7 mm2) of mycelium was inoculated aseptically to 50 mL Erlenmeyer flasks each containing 20 mL of PD liquid medium, and the seed liquids were incubated at 28 ± 0.5 °C for 3 days on a rotary shaker at 120 rpm. A suspension (100 µL) of the seed liquid was inoculated aseptically to 500 mL Erlenmeyer flasks each containing 60 g of rice and 90 mL of distilled water. There were 300 flasks in total, and the flask cultures were incubated at 28 ± 0.5 °C for 4 weeks.

The strain of Penicillium chrysogenum V11 was isolated from the vein of Myoporum bontioides A. Gray in Leizhou Peninsula and deposited in the College of Materials and Energy, South China Agriculture University, Guangdong Province, China. The fungus was fermented with a rice medium (100 mL water, 100 g rice, 0.3 g crude sea salt) in Erlenmeyer flasks (1 L × 100) at 28 ℃ for 30 days under static conditions.