Planta Med 2008; 74 - PB77
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1084422

New sesquiterpenoid metabolites from the tropical coral Pseudopterogorgia rigida

P Georgantea 1, C Vagias 1, G Tegos 2, D Moreau 3, C Roussakis 3, V Roussis 1
  • 1Department of Pharmacognosy & Chemistry of Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis Zografou, Athens 15771, Greece
  • 2406 Bartlett Hall Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical School & Massachusetts General Hospital, 50 Blossom Street Boston MA 02114, U.S.A
  • 3ISOMer, Laboratoire de Pharmacogenomique Marine, Faculte' de Pharmacie, 1 Rue Gaston Veil, F-44035 Nantes, France

A chemical reinvestigation of the tropical soft coral Pseudopterogorgia rigida, collected from the Caribbean Sea, led to the isolation of eight sesquiterpenes. The tissues of P. rigida were extracted with CH2Cl2/MeOH (3:1, v/v) to give an oily residue that was submitted to a number of chromatographic separations to yield all metabolites in pure form.

The structure determination was carried out by the combination of 1 and 2 D NMR spectroscopy and HR-MS data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of metabolites 1-4. Compounds 1 and 2 showed worth noting cytotoxicity against NSCLC-N6 and A549 lung cancer cell lines, whereas the previously reported sesquiterpenes perezone (7) [1] and curcuhydroquinone (8) [2] exhibited significant activity against Candida albicans MLR-62.

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References: 1. Wagner, E. et al. (1965) Tetrahedron Lett. 47:4233–9.

2. McEnroe, F., Fenical, W. (1978) Tetrahedron 34:1661–1664.