Bioactive pregnane-type steroids from the soft coral Scleronephthya gracillimum

Nine new steroids, sclerosteroids A–I (1, 5, 6, 8–13), along with 18 known metabolites (2–4, 7, 14–27), were isolated from the soft coral Scleronephthya gracillimum. These structures were elucidated on the basis of detailed spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configurations of sugar moieties in steroidal glycosides 10–13 were determined by HPLC analysis of the o-tolylthiocarbamate derivatives of the liberated sugars from hydrolysis of these steroidal giycosides. Cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities of these compounds were measured in vitro.