Four new bioactive lobane diterpenes of the soft coral Lobophytum pauciflorum from Mindoro, Philippines.

The marine soft coral Lobophytum pauciflorum collected from Mindoro Island, Philippines, yielded four new lobane diterpene derivatives: the acetate congeners of epoxylobatrienol and lobatrienediol (2 and 7, respectively), a methoxyl congener of lobatetraene (10), and an oxepin congener of lobatrienetriol (11), and six known derivatives (1, 3-6, and 8). The structures of the new compounds were unambiguously established on the basis of NMR spectroscopic (1H, 13C, COSY, 1H-detected direct, and long-range 13C-1H correlations) and mass spectrometric (EIMS) data. All of the compounds were active against the phytopathogenic fungus Cladosporium cucumerinum. Compound 1 was found to be active against the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The isolated lobane diterpenes were also active in the brine shrimp lethality test. In the latter bioassay, compounds 8 and 10 were the most active congeners with LC50's of 0.64 and 4.18 micrograms/mL, respectively.