Magnetic SERS probes can rapidly detect copper ions within high precision and accuracy.

We have conducted a long-term research on the Taiwanese soft coral Asterospicularia laurae, result in many xenicane-type diterpenoids such as asterolaurins A-M from A. laurae coral tissues during the non-spawning period were isolated. Here, we report a new xenicane diterpenoid, asterolaurin N (1), along with three known xenicane-type monocarbocyclic diterpenes [13-epi-9-desacetylxenicin (2), xeniolide-B 9-acetate (3), and asterolaurin I (4)] from A. laurae during the spawning period. The structures of the new secondary metabolite were established with an extensive spectroscopic analysis. The one-and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data of the compounds were discussed. Xenicanes diterpenoids from various soft corals have been reported in previous studies and we discovered that the C-15 of 1 contains two methyl groups on a carbon bearing an acetyl group, which has not been reported previously. In addition, the cytotoxicities of