Abstract
Endophytic fungi have proven their usefulness for drug discovery, as suggested by the structural complexity and chemical diversity of their secondary metabolites. The diversity and biological activities of endophytic fungi from the Terminalia species have been reported. Therefore, we set out to discuss the influence of seasons, locations, and even the plant species on the diversity of endophytic fungi, as well as their biological activities and secondary metabolites isolated from potent strains. Our investigation reveals that among the 200–250 Terminalia species reported, only thirteen species have been studied so far for their endophytic fungi content. Overall, more than 47 fungi genera have been reported from the Terminalia species, and metabolites produced by some of these fungi exhibited diverse biological activities including antimicrobial, antioxidant, antimalarial, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypercholesterolemic, anticancer, and biocontrol varieties. Moreover, more than 40 compounds with eighteen newly described secondary metabolites were reported; among these, metabolites are the well-known anticancer drugs, a group that includes taxol, antioxidant compounds, isopestacin, and pestacin. This summary of data illustrates the considerable diversity and biological potential of fungal endophytes of the Terminalia species and gives insight into important findings while paving the way for future investigations.
Highlights
Instead of living alone as single entities, plants are closely associated with microorganisms present in their neighborhood and, their microbiome [1]
Twenty endophytic fungi were isolated from the leaves, twigs, and bark tissues of the T. arjuna collected from Shirpur (India) and identified as Aspergillus flavus, Diaporthe arengae, Alternaria sp., and Lasiodiplodia theobromae, with Aspergillus flavus being the most predominant endophyte in the leaves and bark of the plant [45]
The crude ethyl acetate extract of Acremonium sclerotigenum isolated from the leaves of T. bellerica showed potent antimicrobial activity against gram positive (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus) and gram negative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria, with an inhibition diameter ranging from 3.5–10mm [43]
Summary
Instead of living alone as single entities, plants are closely associated with microorganisms present in their neighborhood and, their microbiome [1]. Members of the genus Terminalia have a long history in traditional medicinal systems since they are widely used in several continents for the treatment of numerous diseases, including cardiovascular effects [12], wound healing [13], abdominal disorders, bacterial infections, colds, sore throats, conjunctivitis, diarrhoea, dysentery, fever, gastric ulcers, headaches, heart diseases, hookworm, hypertension, jaundice, leprosy, nosebleed, edema, pneumonia and skin diseases [14,15] Apart from their ethnopharmacological usage, several pharmacological properties, including antibacterial [16,17], antifungal [18], antiprotozoal [19,20], antiviral [21,22], antidiarrhoeal [23], analgesic [24], antimalarial [25,26], antioxidant [27,28], anti-inflammatory [29,30,31], antidiabetic [32,33], antihyperlipidemic [34,35], anticancer [36,37,38], and anti-HIV [25,39] activities—as well as several bioactive compounds—have been reported from some of these species [17]. In the following text, we reviewed the distribution of endophytic fungi in organs of Terminalia spp., the reported bioactive potential of crude extracts, and the purified substances obtained from different endophytic fungi
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