Exploring the potential of endophytes from medicinal plants as sources of antimycobacterial compounds

Abstract

Natural product drug discovery has regained interest due to low production costs, structural diversity, and multiple uses of active compounds to treat various diseases. Attention has been directed towards medicinal plants as these plants have been traditionally used for generations to treat symptoms of numerous diseases. It is established that plants harbour microorganisms, collectively known as endophytes. Exploring the as-yet untapped natural products from the endophytes increases the chances of finding novel compounds. The concept of natural products targeting microbial pathogens has been applied to isolate novel antimycobacterial compounds, and the rapid development of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis has significantly increased the need for new treatments against this pathogen. It remains important to continuously screen for novel compounds from natural sources, particularly from rarely encountered microorganisms, such as the endophytes. This review focuses on bioprospecting for polyketides and small peptides exhibiting antituberculosis activity, although current treatments against tuberculosis are described. It is established that natural products from these structure classes are often biosynthesised by microorganisms. Therefore it is hypothesised that some bioactive polyketides and peptides originally isolated from plants are in fact produced by their endophytes. This is of interest for further endophyte natural product investigations.

Molecular Identification of Endophytic Fungi from Bark of Raru (Cotylelobium melanoxylon) that Produce the Antibacterial Compounds

“…In addition, endophytic fungi can be used as an alternative compound isolated from plants that can reduce the use of a large number of plants that produce these compounds (Alvin et al, 2014).…”

“…Many plant species have been used in traditional healing and have been studied for pharmacological properties (Marcellano et al, 2017). Medicinal plants are known to host multiple endophytic fungi and engage in the production of active metabolite compounds (Alvin et al, 2014).…”

Anti-tubercular substances produced by plants

“…and Streptomyces sp, have been examined for possible antituberculosis properties. They have an interesting MIC (0.0625 -200 µg/ml) and a very high percent of inhibition (even as high as 96%) [43,44]. These plants have been used mostly in traditional medicine to treat tuberculosis.…”

Antituberculosis Activity of Brotowali (Tinospora crispa) Extract and Fractions against Mycobacterium tuberculosis using Microplate Alamar Blue Assay Method

“…Many researches are focused on the discovery and development of new antituberculosis drugs from natural product (Chinsembu, 2016). It can be done by screen novel compound from a natural product such as plant species (Alvin et al, 2014). Natural products are considered as potential anti-TB agents (Nguta et al, 2015) Tinospora crispa (L.) Miers ex Hook.f.Thoms) is a member of Menispermaceae.…”