文摘
Six unusual xanthone鈥揷hromanone dimers, versixanthones A鈥揊 (1鈥?b>6), featuring different formal linkages of tetrahydroxanthone and 2,2-disubstituted chroman-4-one monomers, were isolated from a culture of the mangrove-derived fungus Aspergillus versicolor HDN1009. The absolute configurations of 1鈥?b>6, representing the central and axial chirality elements or preferred helicities, were established by a combination of X-ray diffraction analysis, chemical conversions, and TDDFT-ECD calculations. The interconversion of different biaryl linkages between 1 and 4 and between 2 and 3 in DMSO by a retro-oxa-Michael mechanism provided insight into the formation of the xanthone鈥揷hromanone dimers and supported the assignments of their absolute configurations. Compounds 1鈥?b>6 exhibited cytotoxicities against the seven tested cancer cell lines, with the best IC50 value of 0.7 渭M. Compound 5 showed further inhibitory activity against topoisomerase I.