Drechslerol-A, a new phytotoxic metabolite produced by Drechslera maydis, a strain from costus speciosus

Abstract

Drechslera maydis causes severe leaf blight disease of Costus speciosus. One compound, drechslerol-A, isolated from the culture filtrate of this fungus was elucidated as ( cis) hentetracont-10-ene-12-hydroxymethyl-4-ol on the basis of spectral analysis. The production of necrotic lesion was observed on the leaves of Costus speciosus with 1.6 × 10 −4 M concentration. In the most sensitive reaction drechslerol-A shows complete killing effect on the root growth of wheat seedlings at the concentration of 3.2 × 10 −5 M.