Mancini I., Guella G., Frostin M., Hnawia E., Laurent Dominique, Debitus Cécile, Pietra F. (2006). On the first polyarsenic organic compound from nature : Arsenicin A from the New Caledonian marine sponge Echinochalina bargibanti. Chemistry a European Journal, 12 (35), p. 8989-8994. ISSN 0947-6539.
Titre du document
On the first polyarsenic organic compound from nature : Arsenicin A from the New Caledonian marine sponge Echinochalina bargibanti
Mancini I., Guella G., Frostin M., Hnawia E., Laurent Dominique, Debitus Cécile, Pietra F.
Source
Chemistry a European Journal, 2006,
12 (35), p. 8989-8994 ISSN 0947-6539
Reported here is the first polyarsenic compound ever found in nature. Denominated arsenicin A, it was isolated along a bioassay-guided fractionation of the organic extract of the poecilosclerid sponge Echinochalina bargibanti collected from the northeastern coast of New Caledonia. In defining an adamantine-type polyarsenic structure for this compound, deceptively simple NMR spectra were complemented by extensive mass spectral analysis. However, it was only the synthesis of a model compound that provided the basis to discriminate structure 4 from other spectrally compatible structures for arsenicin A; to this end, a comparative ab initio simulation of IR spectra for the natural and the synthetic compounds was decisive. Arsenicin A is endowed with potent bactericidal and fungicidal activities on human pathogenic strains. All this may revive pharmacological interest in arsenic compounds while prompting us to rethink the arsenic cycle in nature.
