Ch. Tamm

Homoisoflavanones and Biogenetically Related Compounds

The homoisoflavanones belong to a small family of natural products whose first member was isolated by Boehler and Tamm in 1967 from bulbs of Eucomis bicolor Bak. (9). Their discovery resulted from a systematic chemical analysis of Liliaceae for cardiac glycosides. However, unlike the botanically closely related Urginea maritima (L.) Bak. (Squill) and some species of Scilla, Ornithogalum and Dipcadi (33), Eucomis plants did not contain even traces of these compounds.

The Spirostaphylotrichins and Related Microbial Metabolites

Fungi are organisms widely distributed in nature and particularly abundant in soils, damp environments and in bad rests of foodstuffs. They encompass the most various forms of life (unicellular, multicellular, spherical, filamentous, parasitic, saprobic, symbiotic, etc.) and are often considered to be harmful, pathogenic or even toxic. Nevertheless fungi possess, besides their ecological importance as destruents (in connection with the decomposition of organic materials), also a great utility as producers of pharmacologically and commercially valuable natural substances. Indeed intensive research over the past five decades has shown that soil derived fungi, and above all those assigned to the class of Deuteromycetes (Fungi imperfecti), represent a rich source of bioactive secondary metabolites.