Exophiarin, an isocoumarin from the fungus Exophiala sp. with antihyperglycemic activity.

Chemical characterization of ethyl acetate extract of Exophiala sp. has afforded the isolation of three compounds including a new isocoumarin named exophiarin (1). Exophiala sp. was obtained from the soil containing dumped organic waste (litter). Initially, LC-UV-MS analysis of the extract of Exophiala sp. revealed the presence of a new compound having molecular weight 438 (1) and previously reported TPI-2 and TPI-5. The novelty was established using advanced database search comprising of biological source, molecular weight and UV profile. 1D, 2D NMR and HRMS data have been used for structure elucidation. Exophiarin with TPI-2 and TPI-5 have displayed moderate improvement in glucose uptake activity when tested in rat skeletal muscle cell line L6.

Antiproliferative activity of hamigerone and radicinol isolated from Bipolaris papendorfii.

Secondary metabolites from fungi organisms have extensive past and present use in the treatment of many diseases and serve as compounds of interest both in their natural form and as templates for synthetic modification. Through high throughput screening (HTS) and bioassay-guided isolation, we isolated two bioactive compounds hamigerone (1) and radicinol (2). These compounds were isolated from fungus Bipolaris papendorfii, isolated from the rice fields of Dera, Himachal Pradesh, India. The structures of the compounds were established on the basis of spectroscopic data, namely, NMR ((1)H, (13)C, mass, and UV). Both compounds were found to be antiproliferative against different cancer cells. Furthermore we have also noted that both compounds showed increase in apoptosis by favorably modulating both tumor suppressor protein (p53) and antiapoptic protein (BCL-2), and in turn increase caspase-3 expression in cancer cells. This is the first report of these compounds from fungus Bipolaris papendorfii and their anticancer activity.