In the screening of searching for new antifungal agents, a new nonaride compound, dihydroepiheveadride (
1), was isolated from unidentified fungus IFM 52672 as the most potent antifungal principle from this organism.
The structure of
1 was established on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical investigation, as well as detailed comparison of the spectroscopic and physico-chemical data of the oxidized derivative (
3) from
1 with those of heveadride (
2). Compound
1 showed strong antifungal activity against various filamentous fungi including human pathogens
Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium marneffei and
Trichophyton spp. It also showed the growth inhibition activity against certain human pathogenic yeasts such as
Trichosporon species, while it had weak or no antifungal activity against
Candida spp. and
Cryptococcus neoformans, and no antibacterial activity against
Bacillus subtilis nor against
Escherichia coli. The antifungal potencies of compounds
2 and
3 were found to be weaker than that of
1.
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