Two rare-class tricyclic diterpenes with antitubercular activity from the Caribbean sponge Svenzea flava. Application of vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy for determining absolute configuration.

Two new natural products, 3 and 4, and their predecessor 7-isocyanoisoneoamphilecta-1(14),15-diene (2), of the rare isoneoamphilectane class of marine diterpenes, along with the known amphilectane diterpenes 6-8, were isolated from the n-hexane extract of the marine sponge Svenzea flava collected at Great Inagua Island, Bahamas. The molecular structures of compounds 3 and 4 were established by spectroscopic (1D/2D NMR, IR, UV, HRMS) methods and confirmed by a series of chemical correlation studies. In a first ever case study of the assignment of the absolute configuration of a molecule based on the isoneoamphilectane carbon skeleton, the absolute configuration of compound 5 was established as 3S,4R,7S,8S,11R,12S,13R by application of vibrational circular dichroism (VCD). In vitro anti-TB screenings revealed that metabolites 2-4 and, in particular, semisynthetic analogue 5, are strong growth inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv.