Current research in natural products has heavily focused on the identification of potent biologically active compounds, specifically for drug development. The project detailed in this thesis focuses on the extraction of compounds from marine invertebrates as well as defining the absolute configuration for a compound. Utilizing marine invertebrates, the sonications method developed in this thesis provides an alternative approach to rapidly extract compounds for primary screening. This method is viable compared to a traditional overnight extraction method, without suffering compound degredation... Previously, clathric acid was isolated from an unknown Clathria sp. This compound is a bibyblic C-21 terpenoid shown to have mild antimicrobial activity against gram positive bacteria. With only its relative configuration established, additional amounts of clathric acid were required to define the overall absolute configuration. Identifying the Clathria sp. to be Clathria compressa, through spicule analysis, additional sponge tissues were then collected off the coast of Boca Raton, Florida to isolate additional quatities of clathric acid. The absolulte configuration was determined through circular dichroism and the octant rule to establish a final configuration for clathric acid's four carbon stereocenters to be: (3S, 7S, 8R, and 12S). / by Rolando Rueda de Leâon. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.