Indole Alkaloids from the Tunicate Aplidium meridianum.

HERNÁNDEZ FRANCO, L; BAL DE KIER JOFFÉ, E; PURICELLI, L; TATIÁN M; SELDES, A; PALERMO, J

JOURNAL OF NATURAL PRODUCTS

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; Año: 1998 vol. 61 p. 1130 - 1132

0163-3864

Marine invertebrates are a very important source of antitumor secondary metabolites. Among these, 3-substituted indoles have frequently been isolated, especially from tunicates and sponges. The substituent at position 3 of indoles is often an additional heterocyclic ring,1-5 with recent examples including the didemnimides from the tunicate Didemnum conchyliatum,6 alboinon from Dendrodoa grossularia,7 and the sponge metabolites psammopemmins A-C (6-8).8 As part of our ongoing study of bioactive compounds isolated from South Atlantic invertebrates, we have examined the constituents of the tunicate Aplidium meridianum (Sluiter, 1906) (9,10) (Family Polyclinidae) collected near the South Georgia Islands. In this paper we report the isolation and structure elucidation of five novel indole alkaloids, meridianins A-E (1-5). All these compounds have a brominated and/or hydroxylated indole nucleus with a 2-aminopyrimidine substitutent at C-3.