Cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory cembranoids from the Dongsha Atoll soft coral Sarcophyton crassocaule

Five new cembranoids, sarcocrassocolides A-E (1-5), along with three known cembranoids 6-8, have been isolated from a Formosan soft coral Sarcophyton crassocaule. The structures of the new metabolites were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and the absolute configuration of 1 was determined by a modified Mosher's method. Compounds 1-4 exhibited significantly cytotoxic activity against a limited panel of Cancer cell lines. Compounds 1-4, 6 and 8 were shown to exert significant in vitro anti-inflammatory activity in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells. Compound 6 also significantly inhibited the accumulation of pro-inflammatory COX-2 protein.