Secondary metabolite production of Epicoccum sp. isolated from lignite

We have extracted secondary metabolites from fossil fungus Epicoccum sp. isolated from lignite and characterized changes in production on various growth media. Chromatographic separation yielded more than 7 fractions that were characterized spectroscopically. One secondary metabolite showed antimicrobial activity. Peaks in the NMR spectra of isolated fractions differ from compounds described in literature that were isolated from recent strains of Epicoccum. The remaining water phase after the extraction was shown to have protein staining properties and could be also used for fluorescent viability stain of yeast cells.