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Published on: March 15, 2012
Microbial transformation of curcumol by Aspergillus niger
Li-Xia Chen1, Hui Zhang, Qian Zhao
1School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China.
Abstract:
Curcumol is a representative index component for the quality control of the essential oil of Curcuma wenyujin Y.H. Chen et C. Ling, an antivirus and anticancer drug in China. Microbial transformation of curcumol (1) by Aspergillus niger AS 3.739 yielded two products. Their structures were elucidated as 3alpha-hydroxycurcumol (2) and 3alpha-(4'-methoxy-succinyloxy)-curcumol (3) by extensive spectroscopic methods including 2D-NMR and HRESI-MS. Among them, 3 is a new compound. Esterification of the substrate with succinic acid is a novel reaction in the field of microbial transformation of natural products. Compound 2, the major transformation product of 1, was a high regio- and stereo-specific hydroxylation product and showed significant antiviral effects.
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