Chemical and bioactive diversities of the genera Stachybotrys and Memnoniella secondary metabolites

During the course of search for novel and bioactive molecules of microbial origin for drug development, Stachybotrys and Memnoniella fungi generally have been found to be a rich source of novel and bioactive secondary metabolites of great importance. Results of phylogenetic analyses were in agreement that the Memnoniella is paraphyletic to Stachybotrys. Interestingly, most Memnoniella spp. were found to produce the similar chemical substances. Up until now, almost 200 secondary metabolites belonging to diverse structural types of trichothecene, triprenyl phenol, diterpenoid, isochroman, polyketide, cochlioquinone and cyclic peptide have been discovered. Most of these fungal metabolites were reported to possess several interesting biological activities, such as disruption of the complement system, inhibition of TNF-alpha release, endothelin receptor antagonism, anti-influenza A virus, antimalarial, inhibition of avian myeloblastosis virus protease, cholesterol esterase, tyrosine kinase, farnesyl-protein transferase, squalene synthase and human heart chymase as well as stimulation of plasminogen, fibrinolysis, thrombolysis. This review summarizes the research on the isolation, structure elucidation, structural diversity, and bioactivities of the Stachybotrys and Memnoniella fungal secondary metabolites reported up to the year of 2014, and then highlights some bioactive compounds as well as their mechanisms of action and structure-activity relationships.