Structural elucidation of aculeximycin. I. Further purification and glycosidic bond cleavage of aculeximycin.

A new insecticidal antibiotic, aculeximycin (ACM), was produced by an actinomycete identified as Streptosporangium albidum. ACM has been successfully isolated from culture filtrate by a combination of Diaion HP-20, Amberlite CG-50, reversed phase silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 chromatographies. It was found that ACM is a basic glycosidic antibiotic with a molecular weight of 1,672 including five monosaccharide units, three double bonds and a hemiketal ring by preliminary spectral analyses. Treatment of ACM with 1,8-diazabicyclo[5,4,0]undecene-7 caused a glycosidic bond cleavage to give aculexitriose, pseudoaglycones I and II.