AMPHISTIN, A NEW MELANOGENESIS INHIBITOR, PRODUCED BY AN ACTINOMYCETE

A new melanogenesis inhibitor, named amphistin, was isolated from the fermentation broth of an actinomycete strain KP-3052. Amphistin was pu rified from the culture filtrate by the combination of cation exchange , gel filtration, and aminosilyl silica gel chromatographic methods. T he structure of amphistin was elucidated as gamma-(beta-histidinoalani no)homoalanine by NMR experiments including H-1-N-15 HMBC experiment a nd other spectroscopic analyses. Amphistin inhibited the melanogenesis of B16 melanoma cells at concentration of 6.8 mu M.