Bioactive hydroxyphenylpyrrole-dicarboxylic acids from a new marine Halomonas sp.: production and structure elucidation

The new marine Halomonas sp. strain GWS-BW-H8hM (DSM 17996) was found to produce 3-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-4-phenylpyrrole-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (HPPD-1) and 3,4-bis(4'-hydroxy- phenyl)pyrrole-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (HPPD-2). In initial cultivations using marine broth, only low contents of these compounds have been isolated. Improving the conditions and growing the strain on artificial seawater supplemented with tryptone 10 g l-¹, yeast extract 5 g l-¹, l-tyrosine 0.6 g l-¹, glycine 1 g l-¹, and glucose 6 g l⁻¹, the growth-associated HPPD-1 and HPPD-2 production of a 40-l batch cultivation reached the amounts of 47 mg l-¹ and 116 mg l-¹, respectively, after 65 h. Both compounds showed potent anti-tumor-promoting activities.