Secondary metabolites from higher fungi in Viet Nam: Discovery, chemodiversity, and bioactivity

Abstract

Medicinal higher fungi such as Ganoderma, Phellinus and Hexagonia have been used as alternative medicinal remedies to promote health and longevity for people in Viet Nam and other regions of the world since ancient times. Nowadays there is an increasing public interest in the secondary metabolites of Vietnamese higher fungi for discovering new drugs or lead compounds. Current research in drug discovery from medicinal higher fungi involves a multifaceted approach combining mycological, biochemical, pharmacological, metabolic, biosynthetic and molecular techniques. In recent years, many new secondary metabolites from Vietnamese higher fungi have been isolated and are more likely to provide lead compounds for new drug discovery, which may include chemopreventive agents possessing the bioactivity of immunomodulatory, anticancer, etc. However, numerous challenges of secondary metabolites from higher fungi are encountered including separation, identification, biosynthetic metabolism, and screening model, etc. Commercial production of secondary metabolites from medicinal mushrooms is still limited mainly due to less information about secondary metabolism and its regulation. Therefore, strategies for enhancing secondary metabolite production have been continuously developed. At present, Vietnamese higher fungi secondary metabolites can be divided into over 20 major groups according to their chemical types. In this paper, roughly three groups of secondary metabolites derived from higher fungi reported in the past decade are overviewed.