JBIR-12, a novel antioxidative agent from Penicillium sp. NBRC 103941

In the course of our screening program for active compounds from fungal metabolites, we isolated JBIR-12 (1) as a free radical scavenger from the culture broth of Penicillium sp. NBRC 103941. Structure elucidation of 1 was carried out using methylated and/or acetylated derivatives of 1. As a consequence, the structure of 1 was determined to be a novel highly oxygenated tetrahydronaphthalene species attached to an acyl chain moiety on the basis of NMR and other spectroscopic data. It was interesting that 1 was spontaneously methylated when left in methanol. Furthermore, isomerization or rearrangements could occur during the derivatization of 1. Compound 1 exhibited potent radical scavenging activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical with an IC(50) value of 75 microM.