Endophytic Fungal Diversity of Medicinal Plants and Their Role During Stress Response

In the plant kingdom, endophytes and, in particular, endophytic fungi have been given immense importance simply due to the diversity of roles they take up for plants and based on the simple fact that almost 80% of perennial plants are associated with one or the other endophytic fungal partner. Furthermore, it has also been shown that up to six different endophytes can be present in a single plant species, and one endophytic partner can form relations with different plant species. On the other hand, medicinal plants have also been an essential part of the human health management system from times immemorial. As many medicinal plant species are also perennial, it becomes necessary to believe that they may also enter associations with endophytic fungi among other partners. In the present manuscript, we try to present a comprehensive picture of various associations formed by the endophytic fungal partners with their medicinal host plants. We shall explore the diversity of fungal species associated with plants, the diversity of medicinal plants playing host to endophytes, and the types of relationships existing between them.