Soft corals are well known for their high content of diterpenes and particularly. In the course of our study on the chemical constituents of soft corals, we have isolated many chemically and biologically interesting secondary metabolites. Soft coral of the genus Sarcophyton (family, Alcyoniidae) have been reported to contain a variety of cembranoids. Unusual dimeric terpenoid skeletons have also been isolated from this genus, and these structures have been proposed to originate by Diels-Alder addition of two different cembranoid units. Recently, we isolation a new skeleton biscembranoid from the Formosan soft coral Sarcophyton tenuispiculatum. The structure was determined by 1D and 2D NMR spectral analysis. The relative stereochemistry of compound was secured by X-ray diffraction analysis. This study demonstrates the cytotoxic effects of this metabolite on SCC25, A431, A375, A549 and HepG2 cells.
