Nocardia is a potent bacterial producer of bioactive compounds. From a culture of Nocardia beijingensis NBRC 16342, we isolated four aromatic compounds, named beijinchromes A-D (1-4). We purified them by silica gel chromatography and reverse phase HPLC, and identified their structures by NMR and high resolution (HR)-MS analyses. 1, 2, and 4 are novel 1,2,3,8-tetrasubstituted naphthalenes, and 3 is a novel 3,8-disubstituted ortho-naphthoquinone. 1 and 2 exert antioxidant activities, and 3 exhibits antibiotic activity. Remarkably, the putative biosynthetic gene clusters for 1-4 are widely distributed in 37 Nocardia species, implying their potential to produce this family of compounds and important biological functions of beijinchromes.
Keywords: Nocardia; aromatic compound; secondary metabolite.