Natural products discovery from Indonesian black water ecosystems

As part of our on-going drug discovery program, we investigated bioactive natural products from microorganisms isolated from black water ecosystems in Indonesia. From the BuOH extract of the culture broth of the soil bacterium Amycolatopsis sp. ICBB 8242, we isolated a new apoptolidin derivative (2), which contains a succinyl group attached to one of the sugar moieties. Compound 2 inhibits the growth of cancer cells, albeit it is slightly less potent than apoptolidin A. An investigation of the EtOAc extract of Streptomyces albiflaviniger ICBB 9297 yielded three known elaiophylins (3-5) and two new elaiophylin analogues (6 and 7), which have different macrocyclic backbones from that of known elaiophylins. The elaiophylins showed potent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium smegmatis.

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