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Over a long period of time, humans have explored many natural resources looking for remedies of various ailments. Traditional medicines have played an intrinsic role in human life for thousands of years, with people depending on medicinal plants and their products as dietary supplements as well as using them therapeutically for treatment of chronic disorders, such as cancer, malaria, diabetes, arthritis, inflammation, and liver and cardiac disorders. However, plant resources are not sufficient for treatment of recently emerging diseases. In addition, the seasonal availability and other political factors put constrains on some rare plant species. The actual breakthrough in drug discovery came concurrently with the discovery of penicillin from Penicillium notatum in 1929. This discovery dramatically changed the research of natural products and positioned microbial natural products as one of the most important clues in drug discovery due to availability, variability, great biodiversity, unique structures, and the bioactivities produced. The number of commercially available therapeutically active compounds from microbial sources to date exceeds those discovered from other sources. In this review, we introduce a short history of microbial drug discovery as well as certain features and recent research approaches, specifying the microbial origin, their featured molecules, and the diversity of the producing species. Moreover, we discuss some bioactivities as well as new approaches and trends in research in this field.

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Fresh buffalo milk was standardized to 1.2 g fat 100 g −1 milk. Low-fat, yogurts were fortified with whey protein concentrates (WPCs) 1 g 100 g −1 , Cacaseinates (Ca-Cns) 1 g 100 g −1 , and spirulina (Spirulina platensis) 1 g 100 g −1 powders and their potential effect on the different quality characteristics were studied. Total solids, ash, and fat contents were high in low-fat yogurt added with spirulina powder, while protein content was high in lowfat yogurt enriched with WPCs. The highest level of antioxidant activity (P < 0.05) corresponded to low-fat yogurt containing spirulina powder, which had high total phenolic compound content. In WPCs-fortified low-fat yogurts, the gel exhibited a various structure with a fine network; and it contained very small pores in size. The highest scores of sensory properties (P < 0.05) were observed in low-fat yogurt enriched with WPCs.

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