Bioactive Cembranoids, Sarcocrassocolides P–R, from the Dongsha Atoll Soft Coral Sarcophyton crassocaule
Wan-Yu Lin 1,†email, Bo-Wei Chen 1,†email, Chiung-Yao Huang 1email, Zhi-Hong Wen 1email, Ping-Jyun Sung 2,3email, Jui-Hsin Su 2,3email, Chang-Feng Dai 4email and Jyh-Horng Sheu 1,5,6,7,8,*

Abstract:
New cembranoids, sarcocrassocolides P–R (1–3) and four known compounds (4–7) were isolated from the soft coral Sarcophyton crassocaule. The structures of the metabolites were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis. Compounds 3–5 and 7 were shown to exhibit cytotoxicity toward a limited panel of cancer cell lines and all compounds 1–7 displayed potent in vitro anti-inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells by inhibiting the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) protein. Compound 7 also showed significant activity in reducing the accumulation of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein in the same macrophage cells.

Keywords:
soft coral; Sarcophyton crassocaule; cytotoxic activity; anti-inflammatory activity