Two novel antifungal peptides, designated alpha and beta -basrubrins, respectively, were isolated from seeds of the Ceylon spinach Basella rubra. The purification procedure involved saline extraction, (NH4)(2)SO4 precipitation, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel, ion exchange chromatography on CM-cellulose and FPLC-gel filtration on Superdex peptide column, alpha- and beta -basrubrins exhibited a molecular weight of 4.3 and 5 kDa, respectively. They inhibited translation in a rabbit reticulocyte system with an IC50 value of 400 and 100 nM, respectively. alpha- and beta -basrubrin inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase by (79.4 +/- 7.8)% and (54.6 +/- 3.6)%, respectively, at a concentration of 400 muM, and (10.56 +/- 0.92)% and (2.12 +/- 0.81)%, respectively, at a concentration of 40 muM. Both alpha- and beta -basrubrins exerted potent antifungal activity toward Botrytis cinerea, Mycosphaerella arachidicola, and Fusarium oxysporum.