Phaeochromycins A-E, anti-inflammatory polyketides isolated from the soil actinomycete Streptomyces phaeochromogenes LL-P018.

Five new polyketide metabolites, phaeochromycins A-E (1-5), were isolated from an actinomycete designated Streptomyces phaeochromogenes LL-P018, cultured from a soil sample collected from a riverbank in Westevenger, Germany. Phaeochromycins A and C were found to be weak inhibitors of MAPKAP kinase-2 (IC50 = 39 and 130 microM, respectively). The structures of the compounds were determined by spectroscopic analysis, primarily two-dimensional NMR, and revealed that phaeochromycins A, B, C, and E were octaketides, elaborated from a C4 starter unit, related to shunt products of the actinorhodin pathway, namely, mutactin, dehydromutactin, SEK34b, and BSM1. Phaeochromycin D (4) is an unusual partially cyclized degraded octaketide intermediate.