Beyond polymaxenolide: Cembrane-africanane terpenoids from the hybrid soft coral Sinularia maxima x S. polydactyla

The effects of natural hybridization on secondary metabolite production and diversification have only recently been studied in plants and have essentially been overlooked in marine organisms. Chemical investigation of the hybrid soft coral Sinularia maxima x S. polydactyla resulted in the isolation of five new terpenoids, 7E-polymaxenolide (1), 7E-5-epipolymaxenolide (2), and polymaxenolides A-C (3-5), possessing a cembrane-africanane skeleton. Their structures were established by detailed analysis of NMR and MS data. The contentious issue of defining the absolute configuration at the stereogenic centers of the conformationally mobile cembrane macrocyclic ring was addressed by joint application of electronic circular dichroism and X-ray diffraction analyses.