A new route to trihydroxamate-containing artificial siderophores and synthesis of a new fluorescent probe.

A fluorescent labelled artificial siderophore 1 was synthesized by coupling a 7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazole (NBD) derivative to the terminal amino group of a new trihydroxamate-containing amine 2, a ferrichrome-type siderophore that was obtained from tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane. Compound 1 was shown to be a suitable tool for experiments on siderophore transport and uptake processes in various organisms cells and particularly in Candida albicans cells.