Bioprospecting of South African Plants as a Unique Resource for Bioactive Endophytic Microbes

South Africa has a long history and strong belief in traditional herbal medicines. Using ethnobotanical knowledge as a lead, a large number of South African medicinal plants have been discovered to possess a wide spectrum of pharmacological properties. In this review, bioprospecting of endophytes is...

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Main Authors: Muna Ali Abdalla, Lyndy J. McGaw
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-05-01
Series:Frontiers in Pharmacology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphar.2018.00456/full
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spelling doaj-7cee9a25a885412083ec111edf5e06982020-11-24T21:37:02ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Pharmacology1663-98122018-05-01910.3389/fphar.2018.00456344982Bioprospecting of South African Plants as a Unique Resource for Bioactive Endophytic MicrobesMuna Ali AbdallaLyndy J. McGawSouth Africa has a long history and strong belief in traditional herbal medicines. Using ethnobotanical knowledge as a lead, a large number of South African medicinal plants have been discovered to possess a wide spectrum of pharmacological properties. In this review, bioprospecting of endophytes is highlighted by following the advantages of the ethnomedicinal approach together with identifying unique medicinal plants where biological activity may be due to endophytes. This review focuses on the current status of South African medicinal plants to motivate the research community to harness the benefits of ethnobotanical knowledge to investigate the presence of endophytic microbes from the most potent South African medicinal plants. The potential chemical diversity and subsequent putative medicinal value of endophytes is deserving of further research. A timely and comprehensive review of literature on recently isolated endophytes and their metabolites was conducted. Worldwide literature from the last 2 years demonstrating the importance of ethnobotanical knowledge as a useful approach to discover endophytic microbes was documented. Information was obtained from scientific databases such as Pubmed, Scopus, Scirus, Google Scholar, Dictionary of Natural Products, Chemical Abstracts Services, official websites, and scientific databases on ethnomedicines. Primary sources such as books, reports, dissertations, and thesises were accessed where available. Recently published information on isolated endophytes with promising bioactivity and their bioactive natural products worldwide (2015-2017) was summarized. The potential value of South African medicinal plants as sources of endophytes is discussed. The insights provided through this study indicate that medicinal plants in South Africa are highly under-investigated sources of potentially useful endophytic microbes. New approaches may be used by medicinal plant scientists for further exploration of natural products from endophytic fungi and bacteria in southern Africa.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphar.2018.00456/fullSouth African medicinal plantssecondary metabolitesendophytesethnobotanical approachbiological activities
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Muna Ali Abdalla
Lyndy J. McGaw
spellingShingle Muna Ali Abdalla
Lyndy J. McGaw
Bioprospecting of South African Plants as a Unique Resource for Bioactive Endophytic Microbes
Frontiers in Pharmacology
South African medicinal plants
secondary metabolites
endophytes
ethnobotanical approach
biological activities
author_facet Muna Ali Abdalla
Lyndy J. McGaw
author_sort Muna Ali Abdalla
title Bioprospecting of South African Plants as a Unique Resource for Bioactive Endophytic Microbes
title_short Bioprospecting of South African Plants as a Unique Resource for Bioactive Endophytic Microbes
title_full Bioprospecting of South African Plants as a Unique Resource for Bioactive Endophytic Microbes
title_fullStr Bioprospecting of South African Plants as a Unique Resource for Bioactive Endophytic Microbes
title_full_unstemmed Bioprospecting of South African Plants as a Unique Resource for Bioactive Endophytic Microbes
title_sort bioprospecting of south african plants as a unique resource for bioactive endophytic microbes
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Pharmacology
issn 1663-9812
publishDate 2018-05-01
description South Africa has a long history and strong belief in traditional herbal medicines. Using ethnobotanical knowledge as a lead, a large number of South African medicinal plants have been discovered to possess a wide spectrum of pharmacological properties. In this review, bioprospecting of endophytes is highlighted by following the advantages of the ethnomedicinal approach together with identifying unique medicinal plants where biological activity may be due to endophytes. This review focuses on the current status of South African medicinal plants to motivate the research community to harness the benefits of ethnobotanical knowledge to investigate the presence of endophytic microbes from the most potent South African medicinal plants. The potential chemical diversity and subsequent putative medicinal value of endophytes is deserving of further research. A timely and comprehensive review of literature on recently isolated endophytes and their metabolites was conducted. Worldwide literature from the last 2 years demonstrating the importance of ethnobotanical knowledge as a useful approach to discover endophytic microbes was documented. Information was obtained from scientific databases such as Pubmed, Scopus, Scirus, Google Scholar, Dictionary of Natural Products, Chemical Abstracts Services, official websites, and scientific databases on ethnomedicines. Primary sources such as books, reports, dissertations, and thesises were accessed where available. Recently published information on isolated endophytes with promising bioactivity and their bioactive natural products worldwide (2015-2017) was summarized. The potential value of South African medicinal plants as sources of endophytes is discussed. The insights provided through this study indicate that medicinal plants in South Africa are highly under-investigated sources of potentially useful endophytic microbes. New approaches may be used by medicinal plant scientists for further exploration of natural products from endophytic fungi and bacteria in southern Africa.
topic South African medicinal plants
secondary metabolites
endophytes
ethnobotanical approach
biological activities
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphar.2018.00456/full
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