Isolation of a novel carotenoid, OH-chlorobactene glucoside hexadecanoate, and related rare carotenoids from Rhodococcus sp. CIP and their antioxidative activities.

In the course of screening for antioxidative carotenoids from bacteria, we isolated and identified a novel carotenoid, OH-chlorobactene glucoside hexadecanoate (4), and rare carotenoids, OH-chlorobactene glucoside (1), OH-γ-carotene glucoside (2) and OH-4-keto-γ-carotene glucoside hexadecanoate (3) from Rhodococcus sp. CIP. The singlet oxygen ((1)O(2)) quenching model of these carotenoids showed potent antioxidative activities IC(50) 14.6 µM for OH-chlorobactene glucoside hexadecanoate (4), 6.5 µM for OH-chlorobactene glucoside (1), 9.9 µM for OH-γ-carotene glucoside (2) and 7.3 µM for OH-4-keto-γ-carotene glucoside hexadecanoate (3).