Natural Products from Marine Fungi: Progress in Extraction and Application

Abstract

Marine fungi are an important class of biological resources, and their natural products are rich in chemical structure and diverse biological activities, and thus have a wide range of applications in the fields of drugs, food, agriculture and environment. Current research on marine fungal natural products focuses on the discovery and abundance of the source, the optimisation and innovation of extraction techniques and the bioactive applications of marine fungal natural products in drug production and other areas. There is still a research gap on how to better explore and understand the mechanism of bioactivity in depth, especially to better preserve the activity of marine fungal natural products under the change of environment from ocean to land and to more effectively use marine fungal resources to develop new drugs. This paper analyses the species and characteristics of marine fungi and their natural products, focuses on the current extraction and purification methods of the products and the existing problems, and elaborates on the current status and prospects of the application of marine fungal natural products. It provides a reference for the existing challenges and difficulties for future research. At present, in the field of marine fungi natural products, there are still problems such as difficult to restore marine conditions, time-consuming and labour-intensive customised extraction and purification methods for each natural product, etc. Future research can focus on finding the common points between marine fungi and terrestrial fungi, and focus on the development of biotechnology and so on.