Secocrassumol, a seco-Cembranoid from the Dongsha Atoll Soft Coral Lobophytum crassum

Chemical investigations on the Dongsha Atoll soft coral Lobophytum crassum led to the purification of a new seco-cembranoid, secocrassumol. The structural elucidation was established by extensive NMR, HRESIMS and CD data. The absolute configuration at C-12 was determined as S using a modified Mosher's acylation. Secocrassumol differs from previously known marine seco-cembranoid in that it possesses an unprecedented skeleton functionalized at C11-C12 bond cleavage. Secocrassumol showed antiviral activity against human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) with an IC50 value of 5.0 mu g/mL.