Endophytic Fungi Are Multifunctional Biosynthesizers 61Figure 3. Chemical structures (1-17) show the diversity of alkaloid metabolites isolated
from endophytic fungi.
10.2. Coumarins and Isocoumarins Derivatives
Coumarins are bicyclic aromatic compound contain 2H-chromen- 2 - one or
any of its derivatives while isocoumarins are isomers of coumarins in which
the orientation of the lactone is reversed to be 1H-isochromen- 1 - one.
Dihydroisocoumarin is a reduced form of isocoumarin where the double bond
between carbon atoms no. 3 and 4 is saturated.
The ethyl acetate extract of an endophytic fungus identified as Periconia
atropurpurea collected from Xylopia aromatica which is an indigenous plant
of Brazilian Cerradocontained 6,8-Dimethoxy- 3 - (2'-oxo-propyl)-coumarin
(18) (Teles et al., 2006). A novel coumarin series, pestalasins A–E (19) was
identified from the endophytic fungus Pestalotiopsis sp., associated with the
leaves of the Chinese mangrove Rhizophora mucronata in the work group of