10.2.1 Antioxidant Compounds from Endophytes
Polysaccharides from plants and microorganisms have been extensively reported as
potent natural antioxidants (Chen et al. 2009 ). Liu and coworkers ( 2009 ), for the
first time, reported the capacity of endophytic microorganisms to produce
polysaccharides with antioxidant activity. Patil et al. ( 2015 ) isolated endophytic
Aspergillusflavusfrom Indian medicinal plant,Aegle marmelos, which produced
bioflavonoid, rutin with excellent antibacterial and antioxidant activities.
Graphislactone A that showed potent radical scavenging activities was obtained
from endophyteCephalosporiumspp. isolated fromTrachelospermum jasminoides
(Strobel and Daisy 2003 ). Other endophytic fungi such asAspergillus nigerand
Alternaria alternata,isolated fromTabebula argenteahave been shown to produce
Lapachol with excellent antioxidant activities (Sadananda et al. 2011 ). An endo-
phytic strain ofColletotrichum gloeosporioidesfrom a fruit of plantForsythia
suspensawas found to produce plant derived metabolite, phillyrin in liquid cultures
(Zhang et al. 2012 ). A representative group of antioxidant compounds obtained
from endophytic fungi that were previously produced by their host plants is shown
in Fig.10.1.
A number of endophytic strains fromVitis vinifera, Vitis quinquangularis, and
Polygonum cuspidatum belonging to the genera Alternaria, Aspergillus,
Botryosphaeria, Cephalosporium, Geotrichum, Mucor, and Penicillium were
shown to produce resveratrol, which is a stilbene phytoalexin with excellent
antioxidant properties (Shi et al. 2012 ). Another phyllosphere species ofAlternaria,
together with root strains ofFusarium solani, F. oxysporumandF. proliferatum
fromCajanus cajan, have been found to produce cajanin stilbene acid, a related
Fig. 10.1 Antioxidant compounds from endophytic fungi originally produced by their host plant
10 Endophytes: Potential Source of Therapeutically... 217