Isolation of an Antifungal Compound from Anaphalis sinica Hance

Anaphalis consists of about 80 species is one of the largest genera of the Asian Gnaphalieae (Asteraceae) and more than 50 species are distributed in China. Anaphalis sinica Hance, a species of Anaphalis, is widespread in northern, eastern and southern China. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), A. sinica Hance has long been used by local inhabitants to treat tracheitis and enteritis. Previous phytochemical investigation of Anaphalis revealed the presence of flavonoids, triterpenoids, furobenzopyranones, diterpenes, hydroxylactones, kaempferol, tiliroside and quercetin and several species from the genus Anaphalis showed significant bioactivity. However, according to existed literatures, little tremetone derivatives isolated from Anaphalis have been reported until now and the antifungal activity of these compounds from A. sinica Hance has rarely been studied. During the research in our laboratory to find new antifungal agents from plateau plants, we observed that the crude extract of A. sinica Hance displayed obvious antifungal activity against several phytopathogenic fungi. Under this circumstance, we aimed to find active constituents from this plant by bioactivity guided isolation and we had already obtained and identified the major antifungal constituent of this plant, which turned out to be a tremetone derivative (compound 1, Fig. 1). Afterwards, we evaluated the effect of compound 1 on the mycelial growth of Valsa mali, Elsinoe ampelina and Gibberella saubinetii in solid media according to the standard operating procedure for new agrochemicals Isolation of an Antifungal Compound from Anaphalis sinica Hance