High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of natural products. IV. The use of HPLC in biosynthetic studies of cephalosporin C in the cell-free system.

A new cepham metabolite has been isolated from the filtered broth of Cephalosporium acremonium by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and identified as 7 beta-(5-D-amino-adipamido)-3 beta-hydroxy-3 alpha-methyl-cepham-4 alpha-carboxylic acid (I). Pure penicillin N was prepared using HPLC in the analytical mode. When I was added in place of penicillin N as substrate for the cell-free biosynthetic of cephalosporin, no formation of deacetoxycephalosporin C (II) was observed. A synthetic cepham derivative, 7 beta-(5-D-aminoadipamido)-3-exomethylene-cepham-4 alpha-carboxylic acid (III) was also tested in the cell-free system as a possible intermediate. The compound III was shown to be an inhibitor of the ring expansion enzyme that converts penicillin N to deacetoxycephalosporin C.