Nat Prod Res. 2003 Apr; 17(2): 83-9.

Isolation of sesquiterpenoids from sponge Dysidea avara and chemical modification of avarol as potential antitumor agents.

Shen YC, Lu CH, Chakraborty R, Kuo YH.

Institute of Marine Resources, National Sun Yat-sen University, 70 Lien Hai Rd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China.

The marine sponge Dysidea avara contained avarol (1) and avarone (2). Avarol on acylation yielded 2',5'-O-dibenzoylavarol (3); 2,5'-O-(4-chlorobenzoyl)avarol (4); 2,5'-O-dicinnamoylavarol (5); 2,5'-O-(4-bromobenzoyl)avarol(6); 2',5'-O-dioctanoylavarol (7); 2',5'-O-(4-fluorobenzoyl)avarol (8) and diacetylavarol (9). The structural elucidation of all the compounds 1-9 have been done by spectral analysis. The cytotoxicity of these compounds were also determined and evaluated. Compounds 6 and 9 showed selective cytotoxicity against Hepa (human hepatoma) and KB cell lines respectively.