Pharmacological potential of ants and their symbionts – a review

Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) play an important role in the pharmacological and food industry due to their therapeutic and nutritional properties. Being the most abundant eusocial insects in the world, ants also serve as a repository of bioactive compounds, which are utilized for their ecological interactions and defense. Ants have been used for the treatment of various diseases including asthma, cancer, arthritis, and other microbial infections in both modern and ethnic medicine. This is attributed to various compounds, such as antimicrobial peptides, biogenic amines, alkaloids, and flavonoids obtained from ant venom as well as whole‐body extracts. However, most of these compounds have not been characterized till date. Ant endosymbionts are also known to contribute to some of these properties and to play a crucial role in digestion, protection from enemies, nutritional upgrading, nitrogen recycling, and reproductive manipulation of their host. Hence, they have been used in pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries due to their ability to produce various bioactive compounds. In contrast, ectosymbionts specifically help in pathogen defense. However, the potential of ant symbionts in the welfare and production of therapeutic compounds is not extensively studied. This review mainly focuses on the role of ants and their symbiotic microbes as a potential source of bioactive compounds in therapeutic interventions for exploring future possibilities in drug development research. Ants and their bioactive compounds are well known for their therapeutic potential in both ethnic and modern medicine. Ant venom and whole‐body extracts constitute various bioactive compounds with medicinal properties. As ant symbionts play an important role in host reproduction, defense, and well‐being, our review explores the prospects of using these microbial symbionts in therapeutics.