Chemical constituents of the brown alga Dictyopteris divaricata

Abstract

A novel sesquiterpene-substituted benzoic acid, named dictyvaric acid (1), together with nine known compounds (2–10), have been isolated from the brown alga Dictyopteris divaricata Okam. The structure of 1 was elucidated as 3-[(decahydro-2-hydroxy-2,5,5,8a-tetramethyl-1-naphthalenyl)-methyl]-4-hydroxybenzoic acid by spectroscopic methods, including IR, FABMS, HR-FABMS, 1D and 2D NMR techniques. All compounds were obtained from this species for the first time.

Keywords:

• Brown alga
• Dictyopteris divaricata Okam
• Sesquiterpene-substituted benzoic acid
• Dictyvaric acid
• 3-[(Decahydro-2-hydroxy-2,5,5,8a-tetramethyl-1-naphthalenyl)-methyl]-4-hydroxybenzoic acid

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Professor Ablez Zeper for mass spectra measurements. This research was financially supported by the National High Technology Development Project (863 Project) (No: 2001AA620403).