Exploring the antioxidant potential of endophytic fungi: a review on methods for extraction and quantification of total antioxidant capacity (TAC)

Endophytic fungi have emerged as a significant source of natural products with remarkable bioactivities. Recent research has identified numerous antioxidant molecules among the secondary metabolites of endophytic fungi. These organisms, whether unicellular or micro-multicellular, offer the potential for genetic manipulation to enhance the production of these valuable antioxidant compounds, which hold promise for promoting health, vitality, and various biotechnological applications. In this study, we provide a critical review of methods for extracting, purifying, characterizing, and estimating the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of endophytic fungi metabolites. While many endophytes produce metabolites similar to those found in plants with established symbiotic associations, we also highlight the existence of novel metabolites with potential scientific interest. Additionally, we discuss how advancements in nanotechnology have opened new avenues for exploring nanoformulations of endophytic metabolites in future studies, offering opportunities for diverse biological and industrial applications

African and Holy Basil - a review of ethnobotany, phytochemistry, and toxicity of their essential oil: Current trends and prospects for antimicrobial/anti-parasitic pharmacology

The increased global health burden and mortality rate due to synthetic drug side effects and microbial resistance requires immediate attention for safer and better agents. This quest has fueled the search for phytotherapeutic alternatives, such as essential oils (EOs). Ocimum (Basil) essential oil has pleiotropic health-promoting potential in the treatment of a variety of diseases. This review focused on the ethnobotany, phytochemicals, antimicrobial properties, and toxicity of African and Holy Basil essential oils. African Basil EOs have been used to treat malaria, typhoid, yellow fever candidiasis, influenza, tooth gargle, sore eyes, and ear infections, among other things. Similarly, Holy Basil is used locally as a remedy for diseases such as colds, coughs, malaria, asthma, genitourinary infections, stomach acidity, diabetes, and influenza. This potency could be attributed to the abundance of phytochemicals in the plants, such as eugenol, linalool, and 1, 8-cineole. Experimental evidence has shown that the phytonutrients found primarily in their EOs have antimicrobial activity against many bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoans. This study discusses the multi-targeted approach of these compounds in eliminating microorganisms by distorting their cellular architecture, which leads to membrane permeability disruption, denaturation of key proteins for survival, damage to the microbial DNA and replication machinery, and ultimately cell lysis and organism death. Their antimicrobial pharmacology invariably positions them as a new, effective, and safer Phyto antimicrobial agent to reduce morbidity and mortality due to microbial resistance

Allistatin:A potent yet uncharacterized therapeutic nugget in Allium sativum

Major solutions to human health challenges are encrypted in nature's resources. Despite the focus of contemporary research on characterizing plant natural products and phytochemicals, a vast number of plants are yet to be discovered, or their products functionally characterized. Garlic is one of the most common traditional Chinese medicinal plants and a hub of over 200 diverse phytochemicals. Interestingly, allistatin is a phytochemical frequently mentioned alongside allicin in research articles on Garlic (Allium sativum) and has been reported to possess interesting therapeutic activities. However, there are no reports on the proper characterization of allistatin or any of its structural information available on public repositories or databases. Moreover, experimental evidence to back up the claims of its therapeutic bioactivities is not available in any accessible literature. All of these have hampered prospective studies with allistatin and possible discoveries of novel therapeutic activities. This review provides a piece of up-to-date information on allistatin and a hypothetical prediction of the nature of its structure from the sparsely available information. Available information on its bioactivities was also reviewed, although very sparse evidence on their mechanism of action. Finally, a pathway towards the complete characterization of allistatin was suggested as a future prospect.</p

Allistatin:A potent yet uncharacterized therapeutic nugget in Allium sativum

Major solutions to human health challenges are encrypted in nature's resources. Despite the focus of contemporary research on characterizing plant natural products and phytochemicals, a vast number of plants are yet to be discovered, or their products functionally characterized. Garlic is one of the most common traditional Chinese medicinal plants and a hub of over 200 diverse phytochemicals. Interestingly, allistatin is a phytochemical frequently mentioned alongside allicin in research articles on Garlic (Allium sativum) and has been reported to possess interesting therapeutic activities. However, there are no reports on the proper characterization of allistatin or any of its structural information available on public repositories or databases. Moreover, experimental evidence to back up the claims of its therapeutic bioactivities is not available in any accessible literature. All of these have hampered prospective studies with allistatin and possible discoveries of novel therapeutic activities. This review provides a piece of up-to-date information on allistatin and a hypothetical prediction of the nature of its structure from the sparsely available information. Available information on its bioactivities was also reviewed, although very sparse evidence on their mechanism of action. Finally, a pathway towards the complete characterization of allistatin was suggested as a future prospect.</p