Reductive inactivation of digitoxin by Eubacterium lentum cultures

The obligate anaerobe Eubacterium lentum inactivated the cardiac glycoside digitoxin by reducing the double bond in the lactone ring. This conversion was quantitative when the substrate was incubated at a concentration of 10 micrograms/ml. The reduction reaction coincided with the growth phase of the bacterium. The stereochemical configuration at C-20 of the reduction product dihydrodigitoxin was found to be R. Incubation of digitoxigenin and its mono- and bisdigitoxosides individually with E. lentum led to the formation of their respective dihydro derivatives. The configuration at C-20 of these reduced metabolites was also found to be R.