Microbial Metabolism Studies of the Antimalarial Drug Arteether

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Abstract
Microbial metabolism studies of the antimalarial drug arteether (1) have shown that arteether is metabolized by a number of microorganisms. Large-scale fermentation with Aspergillus niger (ATCC 10549) and Nocardia corallina (ATCC 19070) have resulted in the isolation of four microbial metabolites which have been characterized using two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D-NMR) techniques. These metabolites have been identified as “AEM1” (2), 3α-hydroxydeoxyarteether (3), 3α-hydroxydeoxydihydroartemisinin (4), and deoxydihydroartemisinin (5).