Title

Transformation of Artemisinin by Cunninghamella elegans

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2004

Publication Source

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Abstract

Semi-synthetic derivatives of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin hold great promise in the search for an effective and economical treatment of chloroquine-resistant forms of malaria. Unfortunately, synthetic functionalization of the artemisinin skeleton is often tedious and/or impractical. We seek to utilize 7β-hydroxyartemisinin, obtained from microbial transformation, as a semi-synthetic precursor for the synthesis of novel 7β-substituted artemisinin anti-malarial agents. Here we employ liquid cultures of Cunninghamella elegans as a means for the rational and economical bioconversion of artemisinin to 7β-hydroxyartemisinin in 78.6% yield. In addition, there were three other bioconversion products: 7β-hydroxy-9α-artemisinin (6.0%), 4α-hydroxy-1-deoxoartemisinin (5.4%), and 6β-hydroxyartemisinin (6.5%).

Inclusive pages

782–786

ISBN/ISSN

0175-7598

Comments

Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

Springer

Volume

64

Issue

6

Peer Reviewed

yes

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