Endophytic fungi of medicinal plants as a treasure of bioactive compounds

Medicinal plants are rich biological sources of various bioactive compounds that are used around the world to treat various diseases. Despite the growing demand for these plants and the secondary metabolites derived from them, there are problems in addressing this need; On the one hand, a lot of plant material is needed to obtain a small amount of the bioactive material, and on the other hand, many species of medicinal plants are scarce or endangered due to reasons such as improper exploitation and destruction of their natural habitat by humans. Therefore, to meet the current therapeutic needs, it is necessary to look for new solutions to produce bioactive compounds of medicinal plants. Some endophytic fungi coexist with medicinal plants and have beneficial effects on their host plants, including improving their growth and health, increasing their tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses, and increasing the formation and accumulation of secondary metabolites by these plants. These endophytes may also produce a wide range of bioactive compounds and metabolites with diverse and important biological and medicinal activities that are same as or similar to their host plant compounds. They are therefore a valuable repository of new bioactive secondary metabolites that can be extracted and used in the pharmaceutical industry as an alternative source of plant use. It is clear that such a solution can not only prevent the extinction of certain medicinal plants, but can also be used to obtain and produce higher quality and quantity of medicinal plants. This review was written to clarify the importance of endophytic fungi in medicinal plants. Also, the biodiversity of fungal endophytes, some useful products and their secondary metabolites isolated from medicinal plants and the effect of some factors affecting the population structure of endophytic fungi have been mentioned. Various challenges for using endophytes as an alternative source of plant-derived bioactive compounds and their application in drug discovery have been also discussed.

Keywords:

Phytochemicals , Secondary metabolites , Pharmaceutical , Drug discovery