A new gorgostane derivative from the Egyptian Red Sea soft coral<i>Heteroxenia ghardaqensis</i>

Abstract

Chemical investigation of the chloroform extract of the Egyptian Red Sea soft coral, Heteroxenia ghardaqensis (Family Xeniidae), led to the isolation of three gorgostane derivatives, namely gorgosten-5(E)-3β-ol (1), gorgostan-3β,5α,6β, 11α-tetraol (sarcoaldosterol A) (2) and gorgostan-3β,5α,6β-triol-11α-acetate (3). To our knowledge, sterol 3 is reported in this article for the first time. The structure elucidation of these compounds was deduced by 1-D and 2-D NMR as well as ESIMS. Sterol 1 showed moderate activity as growth inhibitor of human colon tumour cell lines.