Broad-spectrum antifungal activities and mechanism of drimane sesquiterpenoids

Broad-spectrum antifungal activities and mechanism of drimane sesquiterpenoids – Eight drimane sesquiterpenoids including (-)-drimenol and (+)-albicanol were synthesized from (+)-sclareolide and evaluated for their antifungal activities. Three compounds, (-)-drimenol, (+)-albicanol, and (1R,2R,4aS,8aS)-2-hydroxy-2,5,5,8a-tetramethyl-decahydronaphthalene-1-carbaldehyde (4) showed strong activity against C. albicans. (-)-Drimenol, the strongest inhibitor of the three, (at concentrations of 8 – 64 µg/ml, causing 100% death of various fungi), acts not only against C. albicans in a fungicidal manner, but also inhibits other fungi such as Aspergillus, Cryptococcus, Pneumocystis, (...)