Methyl 5-glucosyl-5,6-dihydro-apo-4,4'-lycopenoate, a novel antioxidative glyco-C(30)-carotenoic acid produced by a marine bacterium Planococcus maritimus [corrected].

Planococcus maritimus strain iso-3 was isolated from an intertidal sediment sample from the Clyde estuary in the UK. A novel red pigment glyco-carotenoic acid ester, methyl glucosyl-3,4-dehydro-apo-8'-lycopenoate has been isolated from this marine bacterium using chromatographic methods. The structure of methyl glucosyl-3,4-dehydro-apo-8'-lycopenoate was determined to be methyl 1-(beta-D-glucopyranosyloxy)-3,4-didehydro-1,2-dihydro-8'-apo-psi-caroten-8'-oate by the degradation experiment and the spectroscopic analyses. The methyl glucosyl-3,4-dehydro-apo-8'-lycopenoate showed potent antioxidative activity in the (1)O(2) suppression model.