Diterpenes and sterols from the Red Sea soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum and their cytotoxicity and anti-leishmanial activities

Abstract

The ethyl acetate and dichloromethane-soluble fractions, from a soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum total methanolic extract, exhibited significant anti-leishmanial and cytotoxic activities. These active fractions yielded a new cembranoid diterpene (1), two known analogues [sarcotrocheliol (2) and sarcophine (3)], and two sterols [(24S)-24-methylcholesterol (4) and gorgosterol (5)]. The structure of the new diterpene (1) was determined via a detailed analysis of its spectroscopic data. Compounds 3 and 5 demonstrated noticeable cytotoxicity on A549 (IC₅₀ 17.4 ± 1.9 µg/ml) and HepG2 (IC₅₀ 17.7 ± 1.5 µg/ml) cell lines, respectively. None of the isolates 1‒5 showed detectable anti-leishmanial activity (IC₅₀ >100 µg/ml).

Keywords:

• Sarcophyton trocheliophorum
• diterpenes
• sterols
• sarcopyranoid A
• cytotoxicity
• anti-Leishmania

Acknowledgement

The first author thanks the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education for the scholarship.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.