Bioactive steroids from the brown alga Sargassum carpophyllum.

By activity-guided fractionation, two new sterols, 3beta,28xi-dihydroxy-24-ethylcholesta-5,23Z-dien (1) and 2a-oxa-2-oxo-5alpha-hydroxy-3,4-dinor-24-ethylcholesta-24(28)-ene (2), together with five known steroids, fucosterol (3), 24-ethylcholesta-4,24(28)-dien-3,6-dione (4), 24xi-hydroperoxy-24-vinylcholesterol (5), 24-ketocholesterol (6), 24R,28R- and 24S, 28S-epoxy-24-ethylcholesterol (7), were isolated from the brown alga Sargassum carpophyllum as active compounds causing morphological abnormality of Pyricularia oryzae mycelia. Compounds 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 also exhibited cytotoxic activity against various cancer cell lines. The IC50 values for 1 and 5 against HL-60 were 7.8 and 8.5 microg/ml, 3 and 4 against P-388 were 0.7 and 0.8 microg/ml, whereas 7 against MCF-7, HCT-8, 1A9, HOS and PC-3 were 4.0, 8.8, 10.0, 10.0 and 7.2 microg/ml, respectively.