Novel thrombin inhibitors, bacithrocins A, B and C, have been isolated from the culture broth of Bacillus laterosporus Laubach NR 2988. The structures of these inhibitors have been determined to be N-acyl-L-phenylalanyl-DL-arginal by the 2D-NMR experiments on their oxidation products and by amino acid analysis. Bacithrocin A inhibits thrombin, factor Xa and trypsin with IC50s of 48, 13 and 0.65 microM, respectively, which are similar to those of bacithrocins B and C. Bacithrocins prolong the clotting time induced by thrombin and factor Xa.