Bioactive microbial metabolites - A personal view

The short history, specific features and future prospects of research of microbial metabolites, including antibiotics and other bioactive metabolites, are summarized. The microbial origin, diversity of producing species, functions and various bioactivities of metabolites, unique features of their chemical structures are discussed, mainly on the basis of statistical data. The possible numbers of metabolites may be discovered in the future, the problems of dereplication of newly isolated compounds as well as the new trends and prospects of the research are also discussed.