Identification and antibacterial activity of secondary metabolites from Taxus endophytic fungus

Abstract:

We isolated three secondary metabolites by silica gel column chromatography from endophytic fungus 12.3.2 that was isolated from Taxus yunnanensis and could produce taxanes. They were identified as cembrene (3,7,11-trimethyl-14-(1-methylethyl)-1,3,6,10-cyclotetradecatetraene), diisooctyl phthalate (1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid diisooctylester) and ethyl oleate (9-octadecenoic acid-ethyl ester) by infrared spectra (IR), mass spectra (MS) and 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Their antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans were examined. Results show that all of the three compounds could inhibit the growth of those pathogenic bacteria. Especially, cembrene showed stronger inhibition to S. aureus, B. subtilis and C. albicans. This is the first report on cembrene produced by plant endophytic fungus.