One of the most widely distributed soft coral species, found especially in shallow waters of the Indo-Pacific region, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and also the Arctic, is genus Sacrophyton. The total number of species belonging to it was estimated to be 40. Sarcophyton species are considered to be a reservoir of bioactive natural metabolites. Secondary metabolites isolated from members belonging to this genus show great chemical diversity. They are rich in terpenoids, in particular, cembranoids diterpenes, tetratepenoids, triterpenoids, and ceramide, in addition to steroids, sesquiterpenes, and fatty acids. They showed a broad range of potent biological activities, such as antitumor, neuroprotective, antimicrobial, antiviral, antidiabetic, antifouling, and anti-inflammatory activity. This review presents all isolated secondary metabolites from species of genera Sacrophyton, as well as their reported biological activities covering a period of about two decades (1998–2019). It deals with 481 metabolites, including 323 diterpenes, 39 biscembranoids, 11 sesquiterpenes, 53 polyoxygenated sterols, and 55 miscellaneous and their pharmacological activities.

Then-hexane extract showed a significant antiviral activity. In addition, annotated compounds exhibited high binding scores on 6 target viral proteinsin silico.

Culex pipiens mosquitoes are vectors to many viruses and can transmit diseases such as filariasis and avian malaria. The present study evaluated the larvicidal activity of marine-derived endophytic fungi Aspergillus nomius and Aspergillus flavus from the soft coral Sarcophyton ehrenbergi along with two known cyclodepsipeptide compounds, scopularide A (1) and B (2), isolated from A. flavus extract, against third-instar larvae of C. pipiens, using distilled water as a negative control and toosenedanin as a positive control. The structures of the isolated compounds were confirmed by various spectroscopic analyses. The lethal concentrations (LC₅₀ and LC₉₀) were calculated by probit analysis. Scopularide A was the most potent after 96 h treatment, with LC₅₀ and LC₉₀ values of 58.96 and 994.31 ppm, respectively, and with 82.66% mortality at a concentration of 300 ppm. To unravel the biochemical mechanism of the tested extracts and compounds, their effects against protease, chitinase, phenoloxidases and lipase enzymes from the whole-body tissue of C. pipiens were evaluated after 72 h treatment at LC₅₀ dose. Superior activity was observed for A. flavus extract against all tested enzymes. A molecular docking study was conducted for scopularide A and B on the four tested enzymes, to further verify the observed activity. Results revealed good binding affinities for both compounds as compared to the docked ligands, mainly via a number of hydrogen bonds. This was the first study to report the isolation of endophytic fungi A. flavus and A. nomius from the marine soft coral S. ehrenbergi. The endophytic fungal extract of A. flavus was found to be a promising source for a natural larvicidal agent against C. pipiens populations.

New meroterpenoid derivative (austalide Z) isolated from the marine-derived fungal endophyte Aspergillus sp. with 9 known compounds. Cytotoxic evaluation of the isolated compounds against Caco-2 cell lines reveal weak to moderate activities.

Chemical exploration of the total extract derived from Epicoccum nigrum Ann-B-2, an endophyte associated with Annona squamosa fruits, afforded two new metabolites, epicoccofuran A (1) and flavimycin C (2), along with four known compounds namely, epicocconigrone A (3), epicoccolide B (4), epicoccone (5) and 4,5,6-trihydroxy-7-methyl-1,3-dihydroisobenzofuran (6). Structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated using extensive 1D and 2D NMR along with HR-ESI–MS. Flavimycin C (2) was isolated as an epimeric mixture of its two diastereomers 2a and 2b. The new compounds 1 and 2 displayed moderate activity against B. subtilis, whereas compounds (2, 3, 5, and 6) showed significant antiproliferative effects against a panel of seven different cancer cell lines with IC₅₀ values ranging from 1.3 to 12 µM.