study, an unidentified vincristine producing endophytic fungus was isolated from
the leaves ofC. roseus(Yang et al. 2004 ). A new compound“Ergoflavin”with
excellent anticancer activity was extracted from the culturefiltrate of an endophytic
fungus isolated from an Indian medicinal plantMimusops elengi(Deshmukh et al.
2009 ). Similarly, Cytotoxic quinone dimer, Torreyanic acid is another important
anticancer agent produced from P. microsporeand isolated from T. taxifolia
(Florida torreya). Recent studies showed thatHypocrea lixii, a novel endophytic
fungi, isolated fromCajanus cajan, produced anticancer agent cajanol (Zhao et al.
2013 ). Another endophytic fungus,M. fragilisexhibited production of bioactive
metabolites, viz., podophyllotoxin and kaempferol (Huang et al. 2014 ) besides,
guanacastane diterpenoids reported from the plant endophytic fungusCercospora
sp. (Feng et al. 2014 ).
A pentacyclic triterpenoid, ursolic acid, a known compound for its anticancer and
cardioprotective properties (Liu1995), was found to be produced by endophytic
strain ofAnnulohypoxylon stygium (Cheng et al.2014). A sterol ergosta-8(9),
22-diene- 3,5,6,7-tetrol (3b,5a,6b,7a, 22E) (Compound 1) along with other three
known sterols, namely 3b,5a,6b-trihydroxyergosta-7, 22-diene (2) 3b-hydroxy-5a,
8 a-epidioxyergosta-6,22-diene (3) and ergosterol (4) from the unidentified endo-
phytic fungi obtained fromCastaniopsisfissa(Hou et al.2004).
Endophytic fungi seem to be the store house of bioactive compounds with
anticancer potential characteristics of their host plant. A new compound naphtho-ã-
pyrone, 5-hydroxy-6,8-dimethoxy-2-benzyl-4H-naphtho[2,3-b]-pyran-4-one (1),
together with three known compounds 5,7-dihydroxy-2-methylbenzopyran-4-one
(2), 3,5-dihydroxy-2,7dimethylbenzopyran-4-one (3) and cyclo (Tyr-Tyr) (4) has
Fig. 10.4 Structure of anticancer compounds produced by endophytes
228 S.I. Mohammed et al.