| Summary: | The filamentous fungal pathogen <i>Fusarium</i> sp. causes several crop diseases. Some <i>Fusarium</i> sp. are endophytes that produce diverse valuable bioactive secondary metabolites. Here, extensive chemical investigation of the endophytic fungus, <i>Fusarium</i> sp. QF001, isolated from the inner rotten part of old roots of <i>Scutellariae baicalensis</i> resulted in the isolation of two new photosensitive geometrical isomers of lucilactaene (compounds <b>2</b> and <b>3</b>) along with lucilactaene (<b>6</b>) and six other known compounds (fusarubin (<b>1</b>), (+)-solaniol (<b>4</b>), javanicin (<b>5</b>), 9-desmethylherbarine (<b>7</b>), NG391 (<b>8</b>) and NG393 (<b>9</b>)). Newly isolated isomers and lucilactaene were unstable under light at room temperature and tended to be a mixture in equilibrium state when exposed to a polar protic solvent during reversed phase chromatography. Normal phase chromatography under dim light conditions with an aprotic mobile phase led to the successful isolation of the relatively unstable isomers <b>2</b> and <b>3</b>. Their structures were elucidated as 8(Z)-lucilactaene (<b>2</b>) and 4(<i>Z</i>)-lucilactaene (<b>3</b>) based on spectroscopic data. The absolute configuration of <b>4</b> was speculated to be <i>R</i> by computer-assisted specific rotation analysis. The isolated compounds could inhibit NO production and suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines expression in LPS-stimulated macrophage cells. These properties of the isolated compounds indicate their potential use as anti-inflammatory drugs.
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