Untapped Bioactive Compounds from Endophytic Fungi with Potential Antioxidant Activity

Endophytic fungi (EF) have attracted a lot of attention over the past century because of their capacity to produce novel bioactive chemicals with a variety of biological properties, which are then used for medical, pharmacological, and agricultural purposes. EF maintain the ecological and physiological characteristics of the host plant by living inside the plant tissues without displaying any disease symptoms. Innovative lead chemicals created by EFs, such as paclitaxel and penicillin, cleared the path for the investigation of new bioactive compounds for industrial application. Despite this, not much research has been done in this important and special field. The current chapter is concerned with the importance of EFs in the synthesis of new bioactive metabolites with a range of biological activities, such as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiprotozoal, antiparasitic, antioxidant, immunosuppressive, and anticancer activities. Special attention is given to the antioxidant activity of the metabolites produced by EFs in light of the significant application of these substances as potential therapeutics for major, life-threatening illnesses, thereby driving the necessity to escalate research into novel, more potent, and reasonably priced antioxidants medications. The potential obstacles in the large-scale bioprospecting in vitro production of antioxidants were also highlighted in this chapter, as were the strategies to overcome these hurdles.