Nonactin

Nonactin also known as Polynanctin, Werramycin A is a member of the family of cyclic ionophores. It has a high selectivity for ammonium ions and for this reason is also known as “ammonium ionophore”. It was first isolated by Corbaz et al. in 1955 from bacterial strains (1). To understand the required stereochemistry for an efficient bacterial and ion binding, various isothermal calorimetric measurements were performed with K+, Na+ and NH4+. Nonactin is active against a range of gram positive organisms and has a high selectivity for K+ (2).

(1R,2R,5R,7R,10S,11S,14S,16S,19R,20¬R,23R,25R,28S,29S,32S,34S) -2,5,11,14,20,23,29,32-O¬ctamethyl-4,13,22,31,37,38,39,40-octaoxapentacyclo-[32.2.1.17,10.116,19.125,28]tetracontane-3,12,21,3¬0-tetrone

1. Corbaz R., et al. (1955) Helvetica Chimica Acta 38(60): 1445-48. 2. Kushe B., Smith A., McGuirl M., Priestley N., (2009) J Am Chem Soc 131(47): 17555-165.