Bioactive Alkaloids as Secondary Metabolites from Plant Endophytic Aspergillus Genus

Abstract

Alkaloids represent a large family of natural products with diverse structures and bioactivities. These compounds and their derivatives have been widely used in clinics to treat various diseases. The endophytic Aspergillus is a filamentous fungus renowned for its extraordinary ability to produce active natural products of high therapeutic value and economic importance. This review is the first to focus on Aspergillus-derived alkaloids. Through an extensive literature review and data analysis, 263 alkaloids are categorized according to their structural features into those containing cytochalasans, diketopiperazine alkaloids, quinazoline alkaloids, quinoline alkaloids, indole alkaloids, pyrrolidine alkaloids, and others. These metabolites exhibited diverse biological activities, such as antibacterial activity, cytotoxicity, anti-inflammatory activity, and α-glucosidase, ACE, and DPPH inhibitory activities. The bioactivity, structural diversity, and occurrence of these alkaloids are reviewed in detail.

Antimicrobial potential of Aspergillus fumigatiaffinis and A. sclerotiorum: Insights from in vitro and molecular docking investigations

“…These bioactive compounds encompass diverse chemical structures and mechanisms of action, making them valuable candidates for pharmaceutical development (Pasqualotto, 2009). Specifically, compounds such as polyketides, terpenoids, and alkaloids derived from Aspergillus strains have demonstrated remarkable efficacy against a spectrum of bacterial and fungal pathogens (Sadorn et al, 2016;Orfali et al, 2021;Balasubramaniyam et al, 2023;Zhu et al, 2023).…”