Studies of Australian soft corals. XXXII. The structure determination of degraded xenicin-type diterpenes from several Efflatounaria species

Abstract

Three new diterpenes have been isolated from soft corals of the genus Efflatounaria (Coelenterata, Octocorallia, Alcyonacea, Xeniidae). The structure of the first compound (4) was elucidated on the basis of high-field ¹H n.m.r. spectroscopy while that of the second metabolite (5) was determined by single-crystal X-ray analysis. The third diterpene (6) was structurally related to (5), and its structure was confirmed by chemical transformation. All three diterpenes can be derived from xenicin-type precursors, by cleavage and recyclization.