Various strains of D. concentrica have been studied in laboratory cultures and a series of aromatic metabolites has been isolated, including benzene derivatives with a C, or C, side-chain, such as the chromanone (V) (shown to be derived from acetate or a related compound), and mono-and di-methyl ethers of 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene. Non-enzymic oxidation of 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene has also been investigated. The combined evidence suggests that in the fungus the C , , benzene derivatives and 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene are alternative metabolites of a common acetate-derived precursor, and that alternative metabolic fates of the 1,s-dihydroxynaphthalene are methylation and oxidation, by way of the binaphthyl (I) to polymeric quinones and the perylenequinone (II), as previously described.

The maticaria ester (I) which occurs in P. unthmcophilus is derived from acetate by head-to-tail linkage. The polyacetylenes in this species are in a dynamic state, with synthesis de novo accompanying their disappearance. The incorporation of acetate into triterpenes proceeds simultaneously and may be very efficient; in different strains of the fungus competition between triterpene and polyacetylene synthesis is apparent.