Endophytes of Terrestrial Plants: A Potential Source of Bioactive Secondary Metabolites

Abstract

Endophytes are plant inhabiting microorganisms that possess a big and untapped source of natural products with unique chemical structures and biological activities for pharmaceutical and agriculture industry. About, several hundred of endophytes are associated with plants. Metabolites isolated from endophytes with diverse structures belong to alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids, phenols, flavonoids and others. The discovery of an array of therapeutic products has diverted the scientist’s interest from plants to these microorganisms. Hundreds of natural compounds have been obtained and structurally classified while other new active metabolites are under investigation. This present review is an approach to summarize some chemical classes of bioactive compounds obtained from these microorganisms and paving the way for future work.