New 18-oxygenated polyhydroxy steroid from a South China Sea soft coral Sarcophyton sp.

Abstract

One new 18-oxygenated polyhydroxy steroid, (24S)-ergostan-3β,5α,6β,18,25-pentaol 18,25-diacetate (1), along with five known analogues (2–6), was isolated from a soft coral Sarcophyton sp. collected from the South China Sea. The structure of the new compound (1) was elucidated by 1D NMR, 2D NMR and mass spectrometry. The absolute configuration of 1 was determined by the application of the modified Mosher's method. The isolated compounds were assayed for their cytotoxic and antimicrobial activities.

Keywords::

• Sarcophyton sp
• soft coral
• polyhydroxylated steroids
• absolute configuration

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Changlun Shao, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, for sample collection. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 41130858 and 81172977), the National High Technology Research and Development Programme of China (863 Programme) (No. 2013AA093001) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2011HM085).