Preliminary biological investigation of a collection of Comorian soft corals resulted in the selection of two specimens, one of Sarcophyton and the other of Lobophytum, on the basis of their toxicity on larvae of the brine shrimp (Artemia salina) and inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, respectively. Bioassay-guided fractionations provided a known antitumor promoter cembrane diterpenoid, (+)-sar...

A new rosane diterpenoid, 3a-hydroxy-5,15-rosadien-11-one (3), was isolated, together with a known rosane diterpenoid, 5,15-rosadiene-3,11-dione (4), and an aromadendrane sesquiterpenoid, ent-cyclocolorenone (5), from the Et(2)O extract of an unidentified Argentine liverwort Anastrophyllum species. Moreover, four known sesquiterpene lactones 6-9 and two known bibenzyls 10, 11 were isolated from...

A new spatane diterpenoid, leptoclalin A (1), along with two previously reported known norcembranoid diterpenes (2 and 3), were isolated from a cultured soft coral Sinularia leptoclados. The structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses and by comparison with the spectral data of related known compounds. Metabolite 1 is rarely found in spatane skeletons reported from soft coral...

Tanshinones are abietane-type norditerpenoid quinone natural products that are the bioactive components of the Chinese medicinal herb Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge. The initial results from a functional genomics-based investigation of tanshinone biosynthesis, specifically the functional identification of the relevant diterpene synthases from S. miltiorrhiza, are reported. The cyclohexa-1,4-diene ar...

The main source of abietane acids is cobphony, the distillation residue of pine resins. Directly, or after stabihzation through partial polymerization or dehydrogenation, this product is mainly used in the paints, varnishes, and coatings industries. The acid part of cobphony is composed of abietic acid (15), its equilibrium isomers levopimaric (23), palustric (21), and neoabietic (24) acids, an...

Three new abietane-type diterpenoids, 7a-butoxyabieta-8,12-diene-11,14-dione (1), 6a,7a-dihydroxyabieta-8,12-dien-11,14-dione (2), and 6a,7b-dihydroxyabieta8,12-diene-11,14-dione (3) were isolated from the bark of Cryptomeria japonica D. Don. Their structures were established by means of 1D and 2D NMR, IR, UV, and HR-EI-MS spectra and comparison with the data of known analogues. ã 2016 Publishe...

Two new lycoctonine type C19-diterpenoid alkaloids, swatinine-A (1), and swatinine-B (2), along with four known C19-diterpenoid alkaloids, foresticine (3), neoline (4), delvestine (5), and chasmanine (6), were isolated from the aerial parts of the Aconitum laeve Royle. The structures of compounds 1 and 2 were deduced on the basis of spectroscopic techniques (EI-MS, HREI-MS, H NMR, C NMR, HMQC, ...

While more commonly associated with plants than microbes, diterpenoid natural products have been reported to have profound effects in marine microbe-microbe interactions. Intriguingly, the genome of the marine bacterium Salinispora arenicola CNS-205 contains a putative diterpenoid biosynthetic operon, terp1. Here recombinant expression studies are reported, indicating that this three-gene opero...