Isolation of tetraprenyltoluquinols from the brown alga Sargassum thunbergii.

Thunbergols A (4) and B (5), tetraprenyltoluquinols, along with three known compounds (1-3) have been isolated from the brown alga Sargassum thunbergii. The structures of these two new compounds were determined to be 9-(3,4-dihydro-2,8-dimethyl-6-hydroxy-2H-1-benzopyran-2-yl)-6-methyl-2-(4-methyl-3-pentenyl)-(2E,6E)-nonadienoic acid (4) and 10-(2,3-dihydro-5-hydroxy-7-methyl-1-benzofuran-2-yl)-10-hydroxy-6-methyl-2-(4-methyl-3-pentenyl)-(2E,6E)-undecadienoic acid (5), respectively, by combined spectroscopic methods. Both of them exhibited significant scavenging activities on radical and potently inhibited generation of ONOO(-) from morpholinosydnonimine (SIN-1).