Biology Reference
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defence extrinsic to those of the host. There
has been immense interest in the prospect of
these microbial endophytes as a source of
novel bioactive natural products. Endophytes
do show much chemical diversity: alkaloids,
peptides, steroids, terpenoids, isocoumarins,
quinones, phenylpropanoids, lignans, phe-
nols, phenolic acids, aliphatic compounds,
lactones and other secondary metabolites. The
screening of microbial culture filtrates for the
presence of secondary metabolites is an estab-
lished method for the identification of biologi-
cally active molecules (Hamayun
et al
., 2009).
Zhou
et al
. (2010) summarized the
recent advances in taxol-producing endo-
phytic fungi from all over the world. Karsten
et al
. (2007) reported herbicidal and algae-
cidal activity in the ethyl acetate extract of
an endophytic
Phoma
sp. isolated from
Fagonia cretica
;
F. cretica
is used against
fever, thirst, vomiting, dysentery, asthma,
urinary discharges, liver trouble, dropsy,
delirium, typhoid, toothache, stomach trou-
bles and skin diseases. Randa
et al
. (2010)
isolated a mycoendophyte (
Botryosphaeria
rhodina
) from the stem of the medicinal
plant
Bidens pilosa
(Asteraceae) that showed
anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and antifungal
effects.
B. pilosa
is used as a medicinal plant
in many regions of Africa, Asia and tropical
America. The extract of
B. rhodina
also had
significant cytotoxic and antiproliferative
effects against several cancer cell lines.
Some endophytic fungi synthesize the
same bioactive compounds as their host
plants (Zhao
et al.
, 2011). This finding has
promoted research in secondary metabo-
lism of endophytes from medicinal plants.
In this chapter we discuss the endophytic
fungi, bioactive compounds and their dif-
ferent biocidal activity.
were 7.6 million deaths caused by cancer
worldwide in 2008 (13% of all deaths).
In 2004 the number of deaths caused by
cancer was 7.4 million and the cases
increased by 5 million in 3 years. Deaths
from cancer worldwide are projected to
continue rising, with an estimated 13.1 mil-
lion deaths in 2030 (Globocan, 2008). One
of the major drawbacks in the usage of an
anticancer agent to treat malignant diseases
is its adverse toxicity. To deal with the prob-
lem, many research studies have focused on
new, effective and more selective anticancer
agents. Since the discovery that the world's
first billion-dollar anticancer compound
paclitaxel (Taxol) could be biosynthesized
by
Pestalotiopsis microspora,
an endophytic
fungus that colonizes the Himalayan yew
tree, interest in researchers for fungal
medicinal potential has grown tremen-
dously. Hazalin
et al
. (2009) reported cyto-
toxicity of fungal extracts from
P. microspora
against P388 and K562 cell lines. The
extracts were also more effective against
P388 than the K562 cell line. Moreover,
nearly half of the extracts showed activity
against P388 and 25% were active against
K562 cell lines. Li
et al
. (2009) investigated
the anticancer activity of the endophytic
fungus FSN006 isolated from the inner bark
of
Juglans mandshurica
. A medium extract
of FSN006 showed anti-tumour activity
against the liver cancer cells HepG2 that
was higher than that of curcumine. Lu
et al.
(2012) investigated the anti-tumour activity
of broths from the endophytic fungi
Acremonium furcatum, Cylindrocarpon
pauciseptatum, Trichoderma citrinoviride,
Paecilomyces marquandii
and
Chaetomium
globosum
isolated from the Chinese medici-
nal plant
Actinidia macrosperma
. Of the
broths, 82.4% displayed growth inhibition
with IC
50
<100 mg/ml. A crude extract of
Phoma
sp. isolated from
Cinnamomum mol-
lissimum
was assayed for cytotoxicity
against P388 murine leukaemic cells and
inhibition of bacterial and fungal pathogens
(Santiago
et al
., 2012). 5-Hydroxyramulosin,
a polyketide compound identified in the
crude extract, inhibited the fungal growth of
Aspergillus niger
(IC
50
= 1.56 mg/ml) and was
cytotoxic against murine leukaemia cells
5.2 Mycoendophytes and their
Different Biocidal Activity
5.2.1 Mycoendophytes and
anticancerous activity
Cancer is major public health problem and
a leading cause of death worldwide. There
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