ASPERFURAN, A NOVEL ANTIFUNGAL METABOLITE FROM ASPERGILLUS ORYZAE

Abstract

Asperfuran is a novel antifungal dihydrobenzofuran derivative produced by a strain of Aspergillus oryzae. Asperfuran weakly inhibited chitin synthase from Coprinus cinereus. This inhibition could be abolished by the addition of egg lecithin. In the agar diffusion assay asperfuran induced morphological changes in Mucor miehei at very low concentrations (20 ng/disc) while growth was only partly inhibited. In HeLa S3 and L1210 cells it showed weak cytotoxicity, the IC₅₀ was 25 μg/ml.