Aspergillus oryzae (A. oryzae) is a filamentous micro-fungus that is used from centuries in fermentation of different foods in many countries all over the world. This valuable fungus is also a rich source of many bioactive secondary metabolites. Moreover, A. oryzae has a prestigious secretory system that allows it to secrete high concentrations of proteins into its culturing medium, which support its use as biotechnological tool in veterinary, food, pharmaceutical, and industrial fields. This review aims to highlight the significance of this valuable fungus in food industry, showing its generosity in production of nutritional and bioactive metabolites that enrich food fermented by it. Also, using A. oryzae as a biotechnological tool in the field of enzymes production was described. Furthermore, domestication, functional genomics, and contributions of A. oryzae in functional production of human pharmaceutical proteins were presented. Finally, future prospects in order to get more benefits from A. oryzae were discussed.

Colorants have many applications in food, cosmetics, pharmaceutics, textile, paints, plastics, paper, ink and photographic industries. Colorants are classified according to their solubility into dyes and pigments. Those of natural origin have many advantages over synthetic ones, as natural colorants usually do not induce allergies or other health problems. In addition, their consumption in the food and drug industries is fortified with nutritional and health benefits as the majority of them possess antioxidant activity or can be used to produce some vitamins. Plants, animals, insects and microorganisms are rich sources of colorants. However, microbial pigments are favored over other natural pigments due to their higher yield, stability, economical production. Therefore, we focus in this review on fungal pigments, the history of their use, their chemistry and their applications in food and non-food fields. Additionally, the ability of the fungal genus, Epicoccum, to produce pigments is discussed. Moreover, the challenges and future prospects concerning fungal pigment production are highlighted in detail.

Although celebrating its golden jubilee, rapamycin’s importance keeps increasing by the day. Starting as a promising antifungal agent, then as a potent immunosuppressant, strong anticancer drug, and now rapamycin is attracting serious attention as a rejuvenative agent and a possible contributor in treating this era pandemic, COVID-19. Due to its diverse biological activities and promising medical applications, we aimed in this review to put rapamycin under the spot and highlight its discovery, famous microbial producers, reported biological activities, chemical structure, famous analogues, and biosynthesis. Moreover, discuss some rapamycin production approaches including solid-state fermentation, and stressing out producing strain. On the other hand, describe its action mechanism and trials to use it in treatment of COVID-19. Additionally, we highlighted some of the side effects accompanying its use, and describe some approaches reported to minimize these undesired effects. Finally, we report the current status of rapamycin and its analogues in global market, and discuss future prospects of this potent drug.