Novel marine polyethers

The red seaweed Laurencia viridis is a rich source of secondary metabolites derived from squalene. Novel polyethers, clavidol , 3-epi-1111-dehydrothyrsiferol , and lactodehydrothyrsiferol , have been isolated and their structures established by spectroscopical methods. The relative stereochemistry proposed for these compounds is based on ROESY and NOEDIFF data. Possible biogenetic pathways are also discussed.