The term, “endophytes” includes a suit of microorganisms that grow intra and/ or inter cellularly in the tissues of higher plants without harming host plant and have proven to be rich source of bioactive natural compounds. This mutualism between endophyte and the host plant results in fitness benefits to both the partners. Endophytes provide protection and survival conditions to the host plant by producing plethora of substances. These substances produced by endophytes are very useful in industry, agriculture and medicine. Considering that only a small amount of endophytes have been studied, recently, several research groups have been motivated to evaluate and elucidate the potential of these microorganisms in Biotechnological processes focusing on the production of bioactive compounds. Production of bioactive substances by endophytes is directly related to the independent evolution of these microorganisms which may have incorporated genetic information from higher plants, to better adapt to the plant host and carry out some functions like protection from pathogens, insects and grazing animals. Endophytes play a role as a selection system for microbes to produce bioactive substances with low toxicity towards higher organisms. This review summarizes part of the work being done on the endophytes isolated from the plants of Himachal Pradesh, India.

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