Chemistry and bioactivity of secondary metabolites from the soft corals of the genus Sinularia: Research advances / 国际药学研究杂志

ABSTRACT

Soft corals belong to the genus Sinularia, an important group of marine invertebrates widely distributed in the coral reefs of the world ocean, and offer an enormous source of novel and biologically active compounds. More and more scientists choose them for the research program of marine natural products. As reported, Sinularia furnish a wealth of secondary metabolites, like sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, sesquiterpene-diterpene dimers, diterpene dimers, norsesquiterpenes, norditerpenes, norditerpene dimers, meroterpenes, steroids/steroidal glycosides, ceramides, spermidines, and glycolipids, etc. Particularly interesting, these metabolites found from the title genus animals exhibited a wide range of biological activities ranging from antitumor, antifugal, antiviral to anti-inflammatory activities. This paper reviews the progress in the chemistry and pharmacological activities of the second metabolities from Sinularia during the period from 1975 to April 2013, the aim of which is to provide references for further reaserch on the title genus.