The soft corals of the species Paralemnalia thyrsoides was found to be a rich source of sesquiterpenoids, such as nor-nardosinane, nardosinane, neolemnane, and eremophilane, and other related skeletons. Continuing investigation on the chemical constituents of Paralemnalia thyrsoides has led to the isolation of nine new compounds, including one dinor-nardosinane 1, one neolemnane 2, five nardosinanes 4, 6¡V9, and two nor-nardosinanes 10 and 11, along with eleven known compounds, 2-deoxy-7-O-methyllemnacarnol (3), 2-deoxy-12£\-methoxy-7-O-methyllemnacarnol (5), paralemnolin Q (12), paralemnolin R (13), 4-acetoxy-2,8-neolemnadien-5-one (15), paralemnolin E (16), flavalins E (17), isoparalemnanone (18), paralemnolin K (19), and nor-nardosinane sesquiterpenoids (14 and 20). The structures of these compounds were determined on the basis of their spectroscopic analysis (1H, 13C NMR, 1H¡V1H COSY, HSQC, HMBC, IR and HRESIMS) and by comparison of the physical and spectral data with those of the related known compounds. The relative stereochemistry and assignments of 1H NMR chemical shifts were determined by NOESY and coupling constants. The absolute stereochemistry of dinor-nardosinane 1 was further determined by application of the Mosher¡¦s method. The cytotoxicity against of P-388 (murine lymphocytic leukemia), HT-29 (human colon adenocarcinoma), and A-549 (human lung epithelial carcinoma) cells as well as the anti-HCMV (human cytomegalovirus) activities of metabolites 1, 2, 4, 6¡V11 were evaluated. Metabolites 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9 exhibited significant activity against P-388 cell in vitro ( ED50 ¡Ø 4 £gg/ mL) Keywords: Paralemnalia thyrsoides, sesquiterpenoids, cytotoxicity, anti-HCMV

Five new diterpenes, GN67-12-5-4-2 (1)¡BGN67-12-6-4-2 (2)¡BGN67-20-4-3 (3)¡BGN67-25-6-1 (4)¡BGN67-12-5-12-1 (5) and four known terpenoides, GN67-12-5-12 (6)¡BGN67-28-5-3-3 (7)¡BGN67-28-5-4 (8)¡BGN67-23-4 (9) were isolated from the methylene chloride solubles of the Formosan soft coral Cespitularia hypotentaculata. Three new cytotoxic sesquiterpenes, GN78-14-3a-B (10)¡BGN78-22-8I-B (11)¡BGN78-17-3a-B (12) and five known terpenoides, GN78-12-5-B-G (13)¡BGN78-14-3a-N (14)¡BGN78-22-8-W (15)¡BGN78-22-8-H (16)¡BGN78-24-5-Q (17) were isolated from the Formosan soft coral Paralemnalia thyrsodes Three known compounds, GN72-9-8-J (18)¡BGN72-7-4-2 (19)¡BGN72-19-6-8-E (20) were isolated from the methylene chloride solubles of the Formosan soft coral Dendronephthya divaricata The structure of 4 was further confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis and the configuration of the hydroxyl at C-6 of 5 was further determined by Mosher¡¦s reactions. It was suggested that the C-6 has the S configuration. The inhibition of these metabolites toward the pro-inflammatory proteins (iNOS and COX-2) expression was also investigated. Compound 17 showed more specific inhibition against the up-regulation of the pro-inflammatory iNOS protein of LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells.