Recent Advances in Anti-Infective Compounds Produced by Endophytic Fungi

Endophyte is the combined form of two Greek words, which are endon (i.e. within) and phyto (i.e. plants). Endophytic microorganisms (mainly bacteria and fungi) live inside the plant for habitat, food and protection without any harmful effect on the host plant. Endophytic fungi are a highly diverse group of fungi colonized in the host plant tissue and produce diverse chemical classes of secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids, glycosides, xanthones, isocoumarins, quinones, phenyl propanoids, lignans, lactones, benzopyranones, tetralones, cytochalasins and enniatins. These secondary metabolites have been reported to have various biological activities such as anticancer, immunomodulatory, insecticidal, antibacterial, antifungal, antitubercular, antiplasmodial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant. In this chapter, we mainly focused on recently reported and related antibacterial, antimycobacterial, antifungal, antiviral and antiplasmodial secondary metabolites isolated from endophytic fungi.