Novel sesquiterpenes and norergosterol from the soft corals Nephthea erecta and Nephthea chabroli

Chemical investigations on the acetone extract of the Formosan soft coral Nephthea erecta have afforded a new calamenene-type sesquiterpene with a mercaptan group at C-15, erectathiol (1), and a previously reported sesquiterpenoid, (+)-trans-calamenene (2). A novel sec-germacrane sesquiterpene (3), along with a novel norergosterol, chabrosterol (4), possessing a 19-norergostane skeleton, was isolated from the other soft coral Nephthea chabroli. The structures of these metabolites were elucidated through extensive spectroscopic analyses. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity of 1 and 4 (10 μM) significantly reduced the levels of the iNOS protein (58.0 ± 6.5% and 12.4 ± 2.9%) and COX-2 protein (108.7 ± 4.5% and 45.2 ± 5.4%). In addition, metabolite 1 (166 μg/disk) exhibited antimicrobial activities against a small panel of bacterial strains.