Thallphytic alleopathy: isolation and identification of laetisaric Acid.

ABSTRACT

Laetisaria arvalis, a soil-dwelling basidiomycete fungus, secretes an allelopathic agent that induces rapid hyphal lysis in several phytopathogenic fungi. The active compound was isolated from chloroformmethanol extracts of L. arvalis mycelia and characterized as a previously unknown hydroxy fatty acid, (Z,Z-9,12-8-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid.