The mangrove forests are a complex ecosystem occurring at tropical and subtropical intertidal estuarine zones and nourish a variety of fungi that produce 1387 secondary metabolites with the feature of source, chemical and bioactive diversity.

The structural features, biological activities, and fungal biodiversity of 1585 new meroterpenoids were comprehensively overviewed (2009–2019).

Six new isocoumarins, compounds1–4and14–15, two new benzofurans,16–17, along with nine known isocoumarin analogues,5–13were obtained from the mangrove endophytic fungusTalaromyces amestolkiaeYX1.

Two new sesterterpenoids, aspterpenacids A (1) and B (2), with an unusual carbon skeleton of a 5/3/7/6/5 ring system were isolated from the mangrove endophytic fungus Aspergillus terreus H010. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic methods, single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, and electronic circular dichroism calculations. A biogenetic pathway for 1 and 2 is proposed. Both 1 and 2 showed no significant antibacterial activity or cytotoxicity at 50 μM.

Two new chlorinated preussomerins, chloropreussomerins A and B (1 and 2), together with nine known preussomerin analogues, 3-11, were obtained from the endophytic fungus Lasiodiplodia theobromae ZJ-HQ1. Their structures were elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic analyses. The absolute configurations of 1 and 2 were both determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction using Cu Kα radiation. Chloropreussomerins A and B (1 and 2) are the first chlorinated compounds in the preussomerin family, and preussomerin M (3) is reported for the first time as a natural product. Compounds 1 and 2 showed potent in vitro cytotoxicity against A549 and MCF-7 human cancer cell lines, with IC50 values ranging from 5.9 to 8.9 μM, and compounds 4-7 exhibited significant bioactivity against A549, HepG2, and MCF-7 human cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 2.5-9.4 μM. In the antibacterial assay, compounds 1, 2, 5-7, and 11 exhibited significant activities against Staphylococcus aureus, with MIC values between 1.6 and 13 μg/mL.