Natural Medicinal Compounds from Marine Fungi towards Drug Discovery: A Review

Marine fungi are species of fungi which live in estuaries environment and marine environment. These species are found in common habitat. Marine fungi are rich in antimicrobial compounds such as anthrones, cephalosporins, peptides, steroids. These compounds which are derived mainly focused in the area of anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-fouling activity. Bioactive terpene compounds are produced by marine fungi and marine derived fungi can produce sclerotides, trichoderins. Marine fungi have become the richest sources of biologically active metabolites and structurally novel in the marine environment. In a recent study the marine derived fungi dichotomomyces cejpii exhibits activity towards cannabinoid which is used to treat alzheimer dementia. Aspergillus unguis showed significant acetyl cholinesterase besides its anti-oxidant activity. These acts as a promising intent for discovery of pharmaceutically important metabolites like alkaloids, peptides. Computational (in silico) strategies have been developed and broadly applied to pharmacology advancement and testing. This review summarizes the bioactive compounds derived from marine fungi in accordance with the sources and their biological activities