Abstract
The endophytic fungus Penicillium expansum WTJP1 was isolated from Aconitum carmichaelii Debeaux, a famous traditional Chinese medicine known as aconite. Chemical investigation of this aconite-derived fungus led to the isolation of one previously undescribed compound, expansinine (1), which represents the first example of an indole alkaloid-ergosteroid conjugate found in nature. The assignments of the structure of 1 were determined by extensive spectroscopic and spectrometric ECD and DP4+ probability analyses. In addition, compound 1 was evaluated for its cytotoxic activities against five human cancer cell lines.