Fungal quinones: Benzo-, naphtho-, and anthraquinones

Abstract

This chapter summarizes and reviews the main chemical, biological, and pharmacological aspects of fungal benzo-, naphtho-, and anthraquinones, with a particular emphasis in their potential applications. These compounds represent a class of natural metabolites present in fungi but also in certain groups of plants, lichens, and other microorganisms. Considering that benzo, naphtho-, and anthraquinones are in many fungi of the Basidiomycota and Ascomycota divisions, their presence is mainly reported in the genus Alternaria, Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium, and Talaromyces. The chemical diversity due to the high number of different producer organisms makes this class of metabolites a very interesting source of bioactive compounds with antioxidant/pro-oxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and cytotoxic properties. Certain compounds are also used and proposed as pigments with dying properties, but the main applications could be in the field of microbial disease or cancer. However, the pro-oxidant and toxic effects of certain compounds, due to ROS production and DNA damage, is a critical point to be addressed before its use in pharmacological applications.