The lecanindoles, nonsteroidal progestins from the terrestrial fungus Verticillium lecanii 6144.

Four new indolosesquiterpenes, lecanindoles A−D (1−4), were isolated from fermentations of the terrestrial fungus Verticillium lecanii 6144. The structures of compounds 1−4 were elucidated from analysis of spectroscopic data. Compound 2 was reduced to give 4 and its isomer 5. Compound 4 was found to be a potent and selective progesterone receptor agonist with an EC50 of 1.1 ± 0.4 nM in a cell-based luciferase reporter assay.