Studies on Antibiotics from Helminthosporium sp. Fungi. V Zizanin, A New Antifugal Antibiotic Produced by Helminthosporium Zizaniae

Abstract

In the previous reports^1–5), it was found that Helminthosporium sp. fungi in which Ophiobolus miyabeanus, Helminthosporium turcicum, H. panici-miliacei, H. leersii, H. zizaniae and O. heterostrophus produced ophiobolin (m.p. 181°C, C²⁴H³²O⁴), and Pyrenophora avenae produced pyrenophorin (m.p. 174–175°C, C²⁴H³⁰O⁹.

As mentioned above, a strain of H. zizaniae was found to produce ophiobolin, was obtained as crystalline form from the culture fluid on the same strain.

The new antibiotic was isolated from culture fluid of Helminthosporium zizaniae by the author, and it wa named zizanin.

In this paper, the author wished to describe isolation, purification, chemical and physical properties and microbiological spectrum of zizanin.