Aspergillic acid is most commonly known as an antibiotic and antifungal agent that is derived from certain strains of the fungus Aspergillus flavus.

[1][2] In 1940, Edwin C. White and Justina H. Hill discovered that a fungal strain of Aspergillus flavus growing in a surface culture on a tryptone-salt[clarification needed] was capable of producing a bactericidal filtrate.

Over the next few years they worked off this discovery and succeeded to isolate the active material in the crystalline form.

It can be reduced to a neutral deoxyaspergillic acid, which is a racemization product found by Newbold, et al. to be identical with 3-isobutyl-6-sec-butyl-2-hydroxypyrazine.

Chelation of physiologically important ions, such as calcium by aspergillic acid appears to be the likely mechanism of its toxic action.