Chemical Diversity in Species Belonging to Soft Coral Genus Sacrophyton and Its Impact on Biological Activity: A Review

Abstract

One of the most widely distributed soft coral species, found especially in shallow waters of the Indo-Pacific region, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and also the Arctic, is genus Sacrophyton. The total number of species belonging to it was estimated to be 40. Sarcophyton species are considered to be a reservoir of bioactive natural metabolites. Secondary metabolites isolated from members belonging to this genus show great chemical diversity. They are rich in terpenoids, in particular, cembranoids diterpenes, tetratepenoids, triterpenoids, and ceramide, in addition to steroids, sesquiterpenes, and fatty acids. They showed a broad range of potent biological activities, such as antitumor, neuroprotective, antimicrobial, antiviral, antidiabetic, antifouling, and anti-inflammatory activity. This review presents all isolated secondary metabolites from species of genera Sacrophyton, as well as their reported biological activities covering a period of about two decades (1998–2019). It deals with 481 metabolites, including 323 diterpenes, 39 biscembranoids, 11 sesquiterpenes, 53 polyoxygenated sterols, and 55 miscellaneous and their pharmacological activities.

Anti-Inflammatory Cembranoids from a Formosa Soft Coral Sarcophyton cherbonnieri

“…As the marine environment is an important source of bioactive substances, and due to the high chemical diversity and specimen diversity of the Sarcophyton genus [27,28,34,35], it can be expected that new natural products and activities from soft corals of this genus can be continuously discovered in the future.…”

“…All compounds were found to possess anti-inflammatory activity by exhibiting inhibitory effects on the generation of superoxide anion and elastase release in fMLF/CB-induced primary human neutrophils, and cherbonolides G and H ( 2 and 3 ) were found to be the most active in the inhibition of elastase release and superoxide anion generation, respectively. As the marine environment is an important source of bioactive substances, and due to the high chemical diversity and specimen diversity of the Sarcophyton genus [ 27 , 28 , 34 , 35 ], it can be expected that new natural products and activities from soft corals of this genus can be continuously discovered in the future.…”

“…Many studies have revealed that soft corals of the genus Sarcophyton are important sources of various types of natural products, some of them with notable bioactivies [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Our previous chemical study on Sarcophyton cherbonnieri led to the isolation of six new cembranoids cherbonolides A–E and one biscembranoid bischerbolide peroxide, along with a known compound, isosarcophine [ 24 ].…”

“…Compounds 2 and 4 were elucidated as cembranoids possessing an allylic peroxy group. Cembranoids of isosarcophine-type have been reported frequently [ 24 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

New Biscembranoids Sardigitolides A–D and Known Cembranoid-Related Compounds from Sarcophyton digitatum: Isolation, Structure Elucidation, and Bioactivities

“…Previous studies indicated that species of Sarcophyton are rich sources of compounds, such as cembranoids [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], biscembranoids [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], and steroids [ 22 ]. Until now, more than 500 marine natural objects have been found from the soft corals of the genus Sarcophyton [ 23 ]. It is worth mentioning that biscembranoid-type metabolites are mainly biosynthetically rationalized by a Diels–Alder reaction of two monocembranoidal members, a 1,3-diene cembranoid unit, and a dienophile cembranoid unit.…”