Inhibitors of fungal growth from natural origins

Background and Aim : In recent years, the incidence of fungal infection is raised significantly asone of the most important threats to human health. Due to the high toxicity and drug resistance ofcurrent drugs, there is an urgent need to use solutions to detect new antifungal drugs frommolecules of natural origin, especially those obtained from plants and microorganisms.There arecurrently three antifungal drug groups used in clinic including polyenes, azoles and echinocandins.Many anti-fungal drugs have natural origin as phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannins,stilbenescurcuminoids, coumarins, lignans, and quinines. They are produced by the plants duringsecondary metabolism or when a plant is injured. Microorganisms also have the ability tosynthesize various groups of natural antifungal compounds.Methods : One of the best natural resources for recognizing antifungal compounds of plants is tosearch for essential oils and extracts obtained from different parts of them.Two methods aresuggested for identifying and classifying natural antifungal substances: Cultivation by improvingthe culture, antifungal substances and compounds can be identified and metagenomics which isbased on DNA isolation from plant samples and molecular studies. As a result of these twomethods, new antifungal compounds can be identified and further developed from natural sources.Results : Phenolic compounds, phenylpropanoids, echinocandins, alkaloids and antimicrobialpeptides are in the first line of investigation as natural inhibitors of pathogenic fungi growth bytargeting the fungal cell wall and cell membrane at cellular and molecular levels.Conclusion : Fungal infections are still one of the most common problems in the lives of peoplearound the world. At present, the growth trend of novel antifungal drugs is very slow compared tothe rise in fungal infections. This study further indicates that broad spectrum bioactive moleculesby natural origin which target specific sites in the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway such as α-bisabolol are potential candidates for drug development against a wide array of fungi with leasttoxicity for the mammalian host.

کلیدواژه ها:

Antifungal natural compounds ، Cultivation ، Metagenomics ، Antifungal activity ، Medicinal plants ، Green approach