A potent antimalarial trichothecene from hyphomycete species

Antimalarial screening of diverse fungal samples resulted in the isolation and identification of a new sesquiterpene, trichothecinol D (1), which exhibited potent in vitro activity against Plasmodium falciparum with a 200-fold selectivity for parasite versus mammalian cytotoxicity. Trichothecinol D was obtained by bioassay-guided fractionation of two hyphomycete species. Its chemical characterization was performed by detailed NMR spectroscopy and high resolution mass spectrometry. The absolute configuration of trichothecinol D was determined by X-ray crystallography.