SCH57404, an antifungal agent possessing the rare sodaricin skeleton and a tricyclic sugar moiety.

In the course of screening microbial fermentations for potential pharmaceutical activity, the extract from an unidentified fungus (Schering culture number SCF1082A) was found to inhibit Candida albicans. Various media and fermentation conditions were examined in an effort to maximize production of the antifungal agent. The conditions which proved to be the most productive are as follows. Stock cultures were maintained as frozen whole broths at -80°C in a final concentration of 10% glycerol. The inoculum medium for SCH57404 production contained (g/liter) proteus peptone 5, NaCl 5, KH2PO45, yeast extract 3, cerelose 20, soybean grits 5, antifoam 1ml, tap H2O to 1 liter. The pH was adjusted to 7.2 prior to autoclaving. A 250-ml erlenmeyer flask containing 50 ml of this medium was inoculated with 2.0 ml of the stock culture. The flasks were incubated for 96 hours at 24°C on a rotary shaker at 250rpm. This seed culture (2.5ml) was used to inoculate another 250-ml erlenmeyer flask containing 50ml of the same seed medium and the flask was incubated as above. Five percent of the second germination was used to inoculate the fermentation mediumcontaining (g/liter) neopeptone 10, cerelose 40, CaCO34, and tap H2Oto 1 liter. The pH was adjusted to 7.4 prior to autoclaving.