Anti-Inflammatory Cembranoids from a Formosa Soft Coral .

The present investigation on chemical constituents of the soft coral resulted in the isolation of seven new cembranoids, cherbonolides F-L (-). The chemical structures of - were determined by spectroscopic methods, including infrared, one- and two-dimensional (1D and 2D) NMR (COSY, HSQC, HMBC, and NOESY), MS experiments, and a chemical reduction of hydroperoxide by triphenylphosphine. The anti-inflammatory activities of - against neutrophil proinflammatory responses were evaluated by measuring their inhibitory ability toward -formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine/cytochalasin B (fMLF/CB)-induced superoxide anion generation and elastase release in primary human neutrophils. The results showed that all isolates exhibited moderate activities, while cherbonolide G () and cherbonolide H () displayed a more active effect than others on the inhibition of elastase release (48.2% ± 6.2%) and superoxide anion generation (44.5% ± 4.6%) at 30 µM, respectively.