Occurrence of the alpha-glucosidase inhibitor 1,4-Dideoxy-1,4-imino-D-arabinitol and related iminopentitols in marine sponges.

The alpha-glucosidase inhibitor 1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-D-arabinitol (1) was isolated from two marine sponges collected in Western Australia and shown by LC-MS to be responsible for the alpha-glycosidase inhibitory activity in different sponge extracts collected over a wide geographic area. The configuration of 1 was determined by application of Marfey's method. The two most inhibitory extracts contained only 1, while the less inhibitory extracts contained 1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-D-xylitol (2) or the putative diastereomeric imino pentitols 3 and 4. The least active or inactive extracts showed no detectable imino pentitols. While both 1 and 2 are known from plants, this is the first report on the isolation and detection of 1 and 2 in marine invertebrates.