Studies On The Chemical Constitutents And Bioactivities Of The Xisha Soft Coral Sinularia Cf. Molesta

The Sinularia cf. molesta is a sessile animal of the Genus Sinularia, Family Alcyoniidae, Suborder Alcyoniina. Order Alcyonacea, Subclass Octocorallia, Class Anthozoa, Phylum Cnidaria. According to reports in the literature, Sinularia.sp have about 185 species, and 264 essaies had been reported in natural products. The secondary metabolites is mainly composed of terpenoids, sterols, alkaloids, poly ketone and fatty acid etc, and they have many biological activities,such as cytotoxic, antibacterial, antiviral, enzyme inhibitors. Through the existing research results show that:Sinularia sp. is rich in chemical diversity and biodiversity. Researchers on the Sinularia sp. primarily focused on 57 species,such as S. dissecta, S. flexibilis and so on, a number of studies reported the team of Sheu Jyh-Horng from Taiwan. Sinularia cf. molesta with S. intanta has the same name, this is identification by Tixier-Durivault in 1970. Chemical examination of the soft coral species sinularia intacta collected from the Moyli Island of the Gulf of Mannar of the Indian Ocean resulted in the isolation of a series of africanene-sesquiterpenoids, and known compounds such as sterol, ceramide in 1999. And we did not see S. molesta, S. intacta, or other similar reports. In order to find natural products with unique structural features and pronounced biological activities, we have performed a systematic investigation on the chemical components and biological activities of the Sinularia cf. molesta collected from Xisha islands of the South China Sea.The MeOH extract of the Sinularia cf. molesta was chromatographed on TLC, Sephadex LH-20, silica gel, reverse phase silica gel. MPLC and semi-preparative HPLC, respectively. Then 16 compounds were identified by way of spectral methods (NMR、MS、UV、IR、CD) and their physicochemical properties. Among them there are 5 new oxygenated sesquiterpenoids (compound 1-5). one pair of new butenolide derivatives (compound 6). three sesquiterpenoids (compound 7-9). two norcembranoid diterpenes(compound 10-11), two cembranoid diterpenes (compound 12-13),one dolabellane diterpenoid (compound 14), two sterols (compound 15-16)The MeOH extracts were evaluated for their cytotoxicities against HL-60, K562, HCT116, A549, Jurkat cancer cell lines by the MTT and SRB methods with the doxorubicin as a positive control. The results indicated that crud compound showed potent cytotoxicities against HL-60. K562. Unfortunatly the main compounds showed no promising activities in vitro against K562, HCT116, A549, Jurkat in the concentration of 50 mg/mL.In this paper, we studied the chemical constitutents and bioactivities of the Xisha soft coral Sinularia cf. molesta for the first time.Then 16 compounds were identified including 6 new compounds. All compounds have significant difference with S. intacta collected in the Indian Ocean, which reported a series of africane-type, reveals the Xisha soft corasl have certain habitat specificity.