A new benzyl ester and ergosterol derivatives from the fungus Gymnoascus reessii

Abstract

A new benzyl ester, reessiate (1), anthraquinone, islandicin (2), ergosterol and seven ergosterol derivatives (3–9) were isolated from the fungus Gymnoascus reessii. All structures were identified by spectroscopic methods. This is the first report of their isolation from this fungus. Compounds 4–7 and 9 exhibited antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum with IC₅₀ values in the range of 3.3–4.5 μg/mL. In addition, 4 showed cytotoxicity against KB, MCF7 and NCI-H187 cancer cell lines. It was found that 4 has cytotoxic effect to MCF7 (IC₅₀ = 7.9 μg/mL) lower than Doxorubicin (IC₅₀ = 8.5 μg/mL).

Keywords::

• Gymnoascus reessii
• benzyl ester
• ergosterol derivative
• antimalaria
• cytotoxicity

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Higher Education Research Promotion and National Research University Project of Thailand, Office of the Higher Education Commission, through the Advanced Functional Materials Cluster of Khon Kaen University. We are indebted to the Bioassay Research Facility of the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology via the Bioresource Research Network (BRN) for bioactivity tests.