Endophytes as Potential Contenders of Their Host Plants for Bioactive Drug Discovery: A Review

Endophytes, the plant-associated microbes, have currently gained significant interest due to their massive biodiversity for the discovery of novel and alternative bioactive compounds. Review articles previously published were not systematically reviewed in a way suitable for biochemical studies of endophytes. This has posed a great challenge to researchers from developing countries, in which study on endophytes is unfamiliar. The present review is intended to give an insight into the method of exploration of endophytes and associated bioactive agents and shed light on the studies of endophytes in the context of some countries, like Ethiopia. External surface disinfection and reducing into small segments of the selected plant, followed by plating onto an appropriate agar medium, are the main steps routinely applied to isolate endophytes. The active endophytic microbe is then fermented, and culture filtrate is extracted with ethyl acetate and subjected to different chromatographic techniques to fractionate and isolate bioactive compounds. The toxicity, moderate biological potency, and low yield of medicinal plant-based natural products are still some of the challenges in world health medicine. In the near future, therefore, there is a great opportunity to discover new, effective, and safe bioactive natural molecules from endophytes.