Chapter 2 - Endophytic and marine fungi are potential source of antioxidants

Abstract

Antioxidants are substances that interact both inside and outside of a biological system in protecting against the damaging effects of highly reactive free radicals produced during metabolism. Among the various natural alternative sources of antioxidants, endophytic and marine fungi are good sources of potential antioxidant compounds. Fungi are prolific producers of a broad range of compounds including phenols, perylene derivatives, quinines, coumarins, terpenoids, peptides, polyketides, flavonoids, xanthones, and some of them possess potent scavenging activity. This review compiles the antioxidants reported to have come from endophytic fungi and marine fungi associated with algae, sponges, marine sediments, and other sources discovered during the period from 2013–20 (up to April) using bibliographic databases such as Sci-finder, Scopus, and Google scholar. A total of 224 compounds are reported in this review, out of which 82 present novel antioxidant activity. The scavenging capacity of these compounds against different free radicals is briefly described. Some details, such as host, producing fungi, sources, place of collection, and the antioxidant potentials of these compounds are cataloged in this review. This review aims at displaying some of the novel bioactive compounds isolated recently from endophytic and marine fungi and their potential applications as possible antioxidant candidates.