ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the diversity of chemical structure and biological activity of secondary metabolites from actinomycetes. Natural products, especially microbe-derived metabolites, proved themselves as a good source for antibiotics and other biologically active secondary metabolites. In the world of secondary metabolism, polyketides are a significant biosynthetic group and account for the majority of all reported secondary metabolites. An actinomycete strain WBF–16 isolated from the sediment of soil sample of Wei-Hai Sea in China, produced the anthraquinone glycosides that comprised strepnonesides A and B. Terpenoids are produced by condensation of isopentenyl diphosphate and its isomer, dimethylallyl diphosphate. Natural products are both a fundamental source of new chemical diversity and an integral component of pharmaceutical compendium. Actinomycetes are known for their unprecedented ability to produce novel lead compounds. The metabolites from actinomycetes showed diverse biological activities including antibacterial, antifungal, antituberculosis, antimalarial, and anticancer.
