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Planta Med 1989; 55(1): 35-37
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-961771
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© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

The Complex Nature of the Mechanism of Toxicity of Antibiotic Dithiacyclohexadiene Polyines (Thiarubrines) from the Asteraceae

C. Peter Constabel1 , 2 , G. H. Neil Towers1
  • 1Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 2B1.
  • 2University of Montreal, Department of Biochemistry, P.O. Box 6128, Station A, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7.
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Publication History

1988

Publication Date:
24 January 2007 (online)

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Abstract

Thiarubrine A, a dithiacyclohexadiene polyine from the roots of Chaenactis douglasii, and a related dithiacyclohexadiene from Rudbeckia hirta exhibit strong light-independent antibacterial and antifungal activity. This activity is enhanced by exposure to visible light. Visible light also converts the compounds to the corresponding thiophenes. These are antibiotic only when irradiated with UV-A. Dithiacyclohexadienes are the first polyines to exhibit such complex mechanisms of toxicity towards microorganisms.