ANTITUMOR SUBSTANCE AND ANTITUMOR AGENT

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain both a new antitumor substance, especially an antitumor substance having high antitumor effects with slight toxicity and an antitumor agent using the antitumor substance. SOLUTION: This antitumor substance is a sugar ester of monosaccharides or disaccharides with a fatty acid and comprises the sugar ester of a mycolic acid, especially a =50C mycolic acid, more desirably a 30-40C myolic acid with the monosaccharides such as glucose or mannose or the disaccharides such as a trehalose. The antitumor agent is obtained by formulating the sugar ester into a parenteral injection, a cream, etc. The sugar ester can be obtained by culturing a bacterium belonging to the genus Rhodococcus, especially Rhodococcus sp. and is extracted from the cultured microbial cells.