New cembrane diterpenes from the Caribbean Gorgonian coral Eunicea spp

ORGN 550

Xiaomei Wei and Abimael D. Rodríguez. Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, PO BOX 23346, San Juan, PR 00931-3346

The secondary metabolite composition of the gorgonian octocoral Eunicea spp. from Old Providence Is., Colombia, is described for the first time. This investigation has resulted in the isolation of various diterpene skeleton types, namely, dolabellane, cembrane, cubitane, fuscol and dilophol. Here, we discuss four new cembranoid diterpenes (1-4). The structural elucidation and relative stereochemistry of each compound was carried out by spectroscopic analysis (1D, 2D-NMR, MS, IR) and in the case of compound 1, its molecular structure was confirmed by a single-crystal X-ray study. Compound 1 showed significant antimalarial activity. The biological screening of the remaining metabolites is currently under investigation.