Abstract

The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens and cancers alarms the world for the urgent exploration of new therapeutic drugs to treat the superbugs and cancer patients. Since the ancient time, natural products and/or their derivatives have become continuous sources of leading commercialized pharmacological compounds that are used as antibiotics and antitumor agents. An unexplored source of natural products, lichen, currently has evolved into a propitious source of diverse secondary metabolites with various bio-activities including anticancer and antimicrobial, offering the abundant potentiality for future drugs. Herein, we summarized the progress in the discovery of structurally diverse anticancer compounds (C1-C85) with their plausible mode of action and antimicrobial compounds (M1-M112) from lichen and lichen-derived fungi together with their biodiversity. This review covers natural products discussed in literature from January 1985 to December 2017.

Keywords: Lichen, anticancer and antimicrobial, biodiversity, diverse metabolites, secondary metabolites, lichenized fungi.

Graphical Abstract