Cytotoxic and anti-bacterial evaluation of two new aromatic A-ring steroids isolated from the Red Sea soft coral .

A successful column chromatography of a CHCl/MeOH crude extract of soft coral led to the isolation of two new aromatic A-ring steroids (), together with three known compounds (). Both and are 19-norsteroids. The chemical structures were elucidated based on extensive 1D, 2D NMR, and EIMS analyses. In cytotoxic bioassays, compounds were tested against three cancer cell lines: MCF-7, NCI-1299, and HepG2, with IC in the ranges of 22.1-85.4, 26.9-88.7, and 25.9-93.7 M, respectively. Compounds , , and showed moderate degrees of inhibition against and at 100 and 150 g/mL, while exhibiting weak inhibition against and at 150 g/mL.