CHEMICALLY DIFFERENT TREMORGENIC MYCOTOXINS IN ISOLATES OF PENICILLIUM-PAXILLI FROM AUSTRALIA AND NORTH-AMERICA

Fifteen years ago Wilson and Wilson (1) reported isolation of a fungal metabolite from Aspergillis flavus Link ex Fr. with the unusual property of causing sustained tremor in mice, rats, and guinea pigs. Since then, 18 tremorgenic mycotoxins have keen found, some of which have yet to yield to structural elucidation. An early review by Ciegler et al. (2) grouped the tremorgens on the basis of the number of nitrogen atoms per molecule viz: one (the penitrem type), three (the verruculogen (1)-fumitremorgin type), and four (the tryptoquivaline type). This classification reflects their biosynthetic origins. A second type containing one nitrogen atom per molecule (the paspaline type) was subsequently reported, of hich paxilline (2), isolated from Penicillium paxilli Bain. (3), is a representative (4). © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.