Abstract
The soil-derived fungus
Aspergillus
sp. isolated from the rhizospheric soil of
Phoenix dactylifera
(Date palm tree) and cultured on the large scale solid rice medium yielded a novel compound 1-(4-hydroxy-2,6-dimethoxy-3,5-dimethylphenyl)-2-methyl-1-butanone (
1
) and four known compounds; citricin (
2
), dihydrocitrinone (
3
), 2, 3, 4-trimethyl-5, 7-dihydroxy-2, 3-dihydrobenzofuran (
4
) and oricinol (
5
). The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated by MS, 1H, 13C and 2D NMR spectra. Compound (
1
) exhibited potent antimicrobial activities against
Staphylococcus aureus
with MIC values of 2.3 μg mL
−1
and significant growth inhibitions of 82.3 ± 3.3 against
Candida albicans
and of 79.2 ± 2.6 against
Candida parapsilosis
. This is the first report to isolate metabolites from the fungus
Aspergillus
found in temperate region date plant rhizospheres.