Abstract

Penicillium janczewskii K. M. Zalessky was isolated as an endophytic fungus from the phloem of the Chilean gymnosperm Prumnopitys andina. When grown in liquid yeast extract-malt extract-glucose broth, the fungus produced two main secondary metabolites. The compounds were for the first time isolated from this species and identified by spectroscopic methods as pseurotin A and cycloaspeptide A. This is the first report on the production of cyclic peptides by endophytic fungi from Chilean gymnosperms. Pseurotin A and cycloaspeptide A presented low cytotoxicity towards human lung fibroblasts with IC50 ≥ 1000 μM. Pseurotin A showed a moderate effect against the phytopathogenic bacteria Erwinia carotovora and Pseudomonas syringae, with IC50 values of 220 and 112 μg ml-1, respectively. © 2008 Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung.