Briarenols W-Z: Chlorine-Containing Polyoxygenated Briaranes from Octocoral Briareum stechei (Kükenthal, 1908).

Briareum stechei is proven to be a rich source of 3,8-cyclized cembranoids (briarane) with a bicyclo[8.4.0] carbon core. In the present study, four previously unreported briaranes, briarenols W-Z (1-4), along with solenolide A (5), briarenolide M (6), briaexcavatolide F (7), and brianolide (8), were isolated and characterized through spectroscopic analysis, and the absolute configuration of 8 was corroborated by a single-crystal x-ray diffraction analysis. Briaranes 2 and 5 were found to induce significant inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7 mouse macrophage cells by enhancing the expression of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) proteins.