[reaction: see text] The novel antifungal compound oceanalin A, an unprecedented "hybrid sphingolipid", was isolated from the marine sponge Oceanapia sp. The structure was elucidated using NMR and MS spectral analysis and chemical degradation. Oceanalin A exhibits in vitro antifungal activity against Candida glabrata with an MIC of 30 mug/mL.

Rhizochalin A (4), the fourth representative of two-headed glycosphingolipids, was isolated as its peracetate from the sponge Rhizochalina incrustata. Its structure has been established as the 2-ethyl carbamoate of rhizochalin on the basis of spectroscopic data and chemical transformations.

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A new fatty acid, (5Z,9Z)-22-methyl-5,9-tetracosadienoic acid (1a), and a rare fatty acid, (5Z,9Z)-23-methyl-5,9-tetracosadienoic acid (2a), the predominant constituents of the free fatty acid fraction from the lipids of the sponge Geodinella robusta, were isolated and partly separated by reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography, followed by multifold crystallization from MeOH to give 1a and 2a in 70% and 60% purity, respectively. These fatty acids were identified as (5Z,9Z)-22- and (5Z,9Z)-23-methyl-5,9-tetracosadienoic acids by nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, including distortionless enhancement by polarization transfer, heteronuclear multiple quantum connectivity, and correlation spectroscopy experiments, as well as from mass-spectrometric data for their methyl esters, the methyl esters of their perhydro derivatives, and their pyrrolidides. Mixtures of 1a and 2a showed cytotoxic activity against mouse Ehrlich carcinoma cells and a hemolytic effect on mouse erythrocytes. The sterol fraction from the same sponge was analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and 24-methylenecholesterol was identified as a main constituent of this fraction. The implications of the co-occurrence of membranolytic long-chain fatty acids and 24-methylenecholesterol as a main membrane sterol are discussed in terms of the phenomenon of biochemical coordination.