A natural solution to photoprotection and isolation of the potent polyene antibiotic, marinomycin A† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: NMR characterisation; LC-MS characterisation. See DOI: 10.1039/c9sc01375j

Perfect partners for photoprotection: orally ingestible sporopollenin confers striking photoprotection to the powerful, polyene antibiotic, marinomycin A, as well as enabling its selective extraction. The photoprotection and isolation of marinomycin A using sporopollenin exine capsules (SpECs) derived from the spores of the plant Lycopodium clavatum is described. The marinomycins have a particularly short half-life in natural light, which severely impacts their potential biological utility given that they display potent antibiotic and anticancer activity. The SpEC encapsulation of the marinomycin A dramatically increases the half-life of the polyene macrodiolide to the direct exposure to UV radiation by several orders of magnitude, thereby making this a potentially useful strategy for other light sensitive bioactive agents. In addition, we report that the SpECs can also be used to selectively extract culture broths that contain the marinomycins, which provides a significantly higher recovery than with conventional XAD resins and provides concomitant photoprotection.