New precursor of tetraterpenoids from the soft coral Sarcophyton glaucum

Abstract

One new precursor of tetraterpenoids, Sarglaucol (1), along with eight known compounds have been isolated from the soft coral Sarcophyton glaucum collected from the Sanya Bay, Hainan Island, China. Their structures were elucidated through spectroscopic techniques including 1D- and 2D-NMR, and their relative configurations were also assigned by NMR and NOESY analysis. Compounds 1 showed weak antitumour activities.

Keywords:

• soft coral
• Sarcophyton glaucum
• precursor of tetraterpenoids
• diterpenoids

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by grant National High Technology Development Project of China (863 Project, no. 2001AA620403) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 81001370, 29932030). The authors also acknowledge Prof. Z.C. Tang from Qingdao Institute of Oceanology, Academia Sinica, China, for identification of the soft coral species.