Bioactive Cembranoids from the Dongsha Atoll Soft Coral Sarcophyton crassocaule

Seven new cembranoids, sarcocrassocolides F-L (1-7), have been isolated from a soft coral Sarcophyton crassocaule. Their structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis. Most new compounds exhibited significant cytotoxic activity against a limited panel of cancer cell lines, and the structure-activity relationship was studied. Compounds 1-7 were found to display significant in vitro anti-inflammatory activity in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells by inhibiting the expression of the iNOS protein. Compound 4 was also found to effectively reduce the level of COX-2 protein.