Biotransformation of arenobufagin and cinobufotalin by Alternaria alternata

Abstract

The biotransformation of arenobufagin (1) and cinobufotalin (2), isolated from the natural medicine Chan Su, by Alternaria alternata AS 3.4578 was carried out. Incubation of 1 and 2 afforded six metabolites: 3-oxo-arenobufagin (1a), ψ-bufarenogin (1b), 3-oxo-ψ-bufarenogin (1c), 3-oxo-Δ⁴-derivative of cinobufotalin (2a), 3-oxo-cinobufotalin (2b) and 12β-hydroxycinobufotalin (2c). Among them, metabolites 1a, 1c and 2c are new compounds and their structures were characterized on the basis of their spectroscopic data (NMR, MS and IR). Compounds 1, 2, 1b, 2a and 2b were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against HepG2 and MCF-7 human cancer cells, and all of them showed significant inhibitory activities.