Chem. Pharm. Bull., 53(8),1011-1013, August 2005

Notes

Microbial Transformation of Mestranol by Cunninghamella elegans

Muhammad Iqbal CHOUDHARY,^* Syed Ghulam MUSHARRAF, Zafar Ali SIDDIQUI, Naik Tameen KHAN, Rahat Azhar ALI, and ATTA-UR-RAHMAN

International Center for Chemical Sciences, H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi; Karachi-75270, Pakistan. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: hej@cyber.net.pk

The microbial transformation of an oral contraceptive, mestranol (1) by Cunninghamella elegans yielded two hydroxylated metabolites, 6β-hydroxymestranol (2) and 6β,12β-dihydroxymestranol (3). Metabolite 3 was found to be a new compound. These metabolites were structurally characterized on the basis of spectroscopic techniques.

Key words mestranol; 17β-methoxymestranol; microbial transformation; Cunninghamella elegans