Antitumor activity of fatty acids produced by fungi.

Sir: In our screening programme for an antitumor agent using the mouse Ehrlich ascites tumor, it was found that fatty acids extracted from some fungal mycelia showed significant antitumor activity in vivo. In primary screening, the acetone extracts of the mycelia of Penicillium crustosum IAM 7014, Pen. tardum IAM 7206, Caphalosporium diospyri and Sepedonium ampullosporum showed antitumor activity against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma implanted in mice, strain ddY, five weeks of age, weighing approximately 20g. These four cultures are type cultures of our laboratory, belonging to fungi. The mycelial extracts were fractionated through silica gel column chromatography and the antitumor activity of each fraction was determined in vivo. The active principles were eluted from the columns with either hexane or benzene as eluents and obtained as colorless oils by evaporating the solvents in vacuo. The active fractions were then purified by repeated preparative thinlayer chromatography and biological and chemical properties were determined.