Benzophenone and Fimetarone Derivatives from the Coprophilous Fungus Delitschia confertaspora

Studies of the genome-sequenced, flutimide-producing coprophilous fungus Delitschia confertaspora (ATCC 74209), originally obtained from a sample of rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) dung collected in Namibia, led to the discovery of three new highly aromatic natural products named delicoferones A-B (1-2) and fimetarone B (3). The new benzophenone derivatives 1 and 2 have a somewhat unusual skeleton that incorporates three aromatic rings linked via two ketone carbonyl groups, while 3 contains a spiro[chroman-3,7'-isochromene]-4,6'(8'H) skeleton reported only once previously. The structures of these compounds were assigned mainly by analysis of 2D NMR and HRESITOFMS data.