A new phenalenone derivative from the soil fungus Penicillium herquei PSU-RSPG93.

One new phenalenone derivative, peniciherqueinone (1), together with five known phenalenone derivatives (2-6), one known anthraquinone (7) and two known acetophenones (8 and 9) were isolated from the soil fungus Penicillium herquei PSU-RSPG93. Their structures were established by spectroscopic evidence. The absolute configuration of 1 was determined by anisotropic effect and electronic circular dichroism spectroscopy. Compound 2 exhibited mild antioxidant activity and is noncytotoxic to Vero (African green monkey kidney fibroblasts) cell lines.