Anti-inflammatory steroids from the octocoral Dendronephthya griffini

Five new steroids, griffinisterones A–E (1–5), were isolated from the octocoral Dendronephthya griffini. The structures of these compounds were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis. The single-crystal X-ray crystallography on 1 allowed the determination of the 24R configuration in 1. The absolute stereochemistry of 5 was determined by the application of PGME method. Compounds 3 and 4 were found to significantly inhibit the accumulation of the pro-inflammatory iNOS protein of the LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells.