New Bioactive Metabolites of Endophytes Residing in Herbal Medicines

Endophytes are either bacteria (including representatives in actinomycetes) or fungi, which spend the whole or part(s) of their life span by colonizing inter- and/or intra-cellularly inside healthy tissues of host plants without generating any detectable symptom. Growing evidence has demonstrated that endophytes are ubiquitous in the plant kingdom. It has been well documented that endophytes play multiple physiological and ecological roles in the process of endophyte-plant and endophyte-plant-herbivore interactions. As a matter of fact, the colony of some endophytes have displayed the ability to enhance plant growth through improving the tolerance of plants to the abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, heavy metals as well as attacks of or consumptions by microbial pathogens, nematodes, insects and mammalian herbivores. Biochemically, an expanding wealth of data has indicated that the 'host-helping' effects of endophytes are ascribable to the production of bioactive compounds. From the viewpoint of bio-resources, endophytes could be accepted as a slightly opened reservoir of 'special microorganisms' that can be a rich source of new bioactive natural products.

The presentation will provide a selection of new findings on this topic from our institute as exemplified by the characterization of novel bioactive natural products produced by endophytic fungi associated with some herbal medicines. In addition, the trends regarding this field will also be presented.