Two new cembranoids, namely sarcoboettgerols D and E, together with four known related ones, have been isolated from the soft coral Sarcophyton boettgeri collected from Weizhou Island in the South China Sea. Their structures including absolute configurations were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis, quantum mechanical nuclear magnetic resonance methods, time-dependent density functional theory-electronic circular dichroism calculations, as well as comparison with the reported data in the literature. A plausible biogenetic relationship of four cembranoids was proposed. In bioassays, sarcomililatin B exhibited cytotoxic activity against H1299 cell (IC50 =35.0 μM), whereas sarcomililatin B and sarcomililatin A displayed moderate antibacterial activities (MIC 17.4-34.8 μg/mL).
Keywords: Sarcophyton boettgeri; biological activities; cembranoids; soft coral; stereochemistry.
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