Structural Studies

Monosulfated Triterpene Glycosides from Cucumaria okhotensis Levin et Stepanov, a New Species of Sea Cucumbers from Sea of Okhotsk

A. S. Silchenko¹, S. A. Avilov¹, V. I. Kalinin^1#, V. A. Stonik¹, A. I. Kalinovsky¹, P. S. Dmitrenok¹ and V. G. Stepanov²

^#Phone: (4232) 31-11-684; fax: (4232) 31-40-50; e-mail: kalininv@piboc.dvo.ru

¹Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Far-East Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. 100-letya Vladivostoka 159, Vladivostok, 690022, Russia;
²Pacific Institute of Geography (Kamchatka Branch), Far-East Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Partizanskaya 6, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski, 683000, Russia

Received: April 7, 2006; in final form: April 10, 2006

Abstract. Three compounds were isolated from the fraction of monosulfated triterpene glycosides from Cucumaria okhotensis, a new sea cucumber species, and their structures were elucidated. First of them, okhotoside A₁-1, is a new glycoside containing tetrasaccharide sugar moiety; the second, okhotoside A₂-1, is a new pentaoside with a glucose residue in the second position of sugar moiety (such a structural peculiarity has been found in holothurians of the genus Cucumaria for the first time); and the third is a previously known pentaoside cucumarioside A₀-1. The species-specificity of the triterpene glycosides from C. okhotensis was revealed, which justifies the description of this sea cucumber as a new species.

Key words: chemotaxonomic markers, Cucumaria okhotensis, triterpene glycosides

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry 2007, 33 (1): 73-82