Secondary metabolites of a deep-sea-derived fungus Aspergillus puniceus A2 and their potential in drug development

The fermentation product of a deep-sea-derived fungus Aspergillus puniceus A2 was isolated and purified with silica gel column and highperformance liquid chromatography, which isolated 6 compounds. The chemical structures of the 6 compounds were identified as Austocystin I(1), Austocystin G(2), 6-methoxyl Austocystin A(3), Austocystin F(4), F02ZA-1593B₂(5), and Austocystin A(6) by NMR spectrum analysis and compared with literature data. All the isolated compounds were reported firstly in this fungus.Among them, compounds 1, 2, 4 and 6 showed toxic effects on hepatic stellate cells LX2 at the concentration of 20 μmol/L, suggesting that they may have anti-hepatic fibrosis effects.Compounds 2, 3, 5 and 6 inhibited significantly the LPS-induced NO secretion in mouse monocyte macrophage RAW264.7 at 20 μmol/L, showing anti-inflammatory activity.