Phytochemical and biological investigation of Litophyton arboreum

Abstract

Three known compounds including, uracil (1), 5-methyl uracil (2) and uridine (3) have been isolated from the soft coral Litophyton arboreum collected from the red sea. The isolated compounds were identified using spectroscopic techniques predominately 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR analyses, in addition to HR-ESI-MS. Moreover, compounds 1-3 were in vitro estimated for their cytotoxic activity against three human cancer cell lines (A549, MCF-7 and HepG2), and antileishmanial potential against Leishmania major.