The Indonesian soft coral Nephthea chabrolii afforded two new oxygenated sesquiterpenes:  hydroxycolorenone (1) and methoxycolorenone (2), as well as the known liverwort metabolite (+)-cyclocolorenone (3). This is the first report of the occurrence of such terrestrial liverwort metabolites in marine soft corals. The structures of the new compounds were unambiguously established on the basis of NMR spectroscopic data (1H, 13C, COSY, 1H-detected direct and long-range 13C−H correlations). Compound 1 exhibited insecticidal activity towards neonate larvae of the polyphagous pest insect Spodoptera littoralis, with an EC50 of 8.8 ppm and a LC50 of 453 ppm, when incorporated in artificial diet and offered to larvae in a chronic feeding bioassay.

Five new alpha-methylene-gamma-lactone-bearing cembranoid diterpenes, sinularolides A-E (1-5), along with 10 known cembranoids, were isolated from the soft coral Sinularia gibberosa. Their structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic (IR, MS, 2D NMR) data analysis. Compounds 2-5 showed moderate activity against selected tumor cell lines.

Nine new compounds, namely sinularones A–I (1–9), characterized as cyclopentenone and butenolide-type analogues, were isolated from a soft coral Sinularia sp., together with a known butenolide (10). Their structures were elucidated by means of spectroscopic (IR, MS, 1D and 2D NMR, CD) analysis. The absolute configurations were determined on the basis of CD and specific rotation data in association with the computed electronic circular dichroism (ECD) by time dependent density functional theory (TD DFT) at 6-31+G(d,p)//DFT B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level. Compounds 1–2 and 7–10 showed potent antifouling activities against the barnacle Balanus amphitrite.