To clarify the diversity of secondary metabolites of Dictyostelium cellular slime molds and explore any biologically active substances which they may hold, constituents of two species were investigated. From a methanol extract of their fruit bodies, two novel acylated amino sugars were isolated, dictyoglucosamine A (1) from D. purpureum and dictyoglucosamine B (2) from D. discoideum. For further analysis, these compounds were then synthesized from N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Biological evaluation of 1 and 2 showed they induce neuronal differentiation of rat pheochromocytoma (PC-12) cells. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.