(–)-Asperpentyn from the Facultative Marine Fungus Curvularia inaequalis

Marine micromycete fungi are rich sources of new compounds that often exhibit strong biological activity. Fungi of the genus Curvularia were also described several times as producers of such compounds [1, 2]. The isolate of C. inaequalis, which was reported earlier by us as a producer of several known polyketides, was isolated during research on fungal metabolites from strains in the oceans of the Russian Far East [3]. Fungi were cultivated for 21 d in five 1-L Pyrex flasks, each of which contained medium consisting of malt extract (50 mL), agar (5 g), and seawater (200 mL). Mycelium together with medium was extracted twice with EtOAc. The extract was evaporated. The residue (0.4 g) was chromatographed over a column of silica gel (2 10 cm) with elution successively by hexane and hexane-EtOAc (stepwise gradient, 25:1 arrow right 10:1). The fraction eluted by the 10:1 system (24 mg) was separated using HPLC over a ChiraDex chiral column and MeOH-H sub(2)O (40:60) to afford pure (-)-asperpentyn (1.5 mg).