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Published on: December 2, 2022
Microbial hydroxylation of bufalin by Cunninghamella blakesleana and Mucor spinosus
Min Ye1, Jian Han, Guangzhong Tu
1The State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Xueyuan Road 38, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The microbial transformation of a cytotoxic bufadienolide, bufalin (1), was carried out using two strains of filamentous fungi. Cunninghamella blakesleana catalyzed the specific 12alpha-hydroxylation of bufalin and produced 12alpha-hydroxybufalin (2) and 7beta,12alpha-dihydroxybufalin (3) as the major metabolites, together with 7beta-hydroxybufalin (4) and 12beta-hydroxybufalin (5) in low yields. Two minor products were isolated from the culture broth of Mucor spinosus and were identified as 7beta,15alpha-dihydroxybufalin (6) and 5beta,7beta-dihydroxybufalin (7), respectively. Metabolites 2, 3, 6, and 7 are new compounds, and their structures were fully characterized by NMR and MS spectroscopy.
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