UC San Diego

Six new cyclopenta[g]indoles were isolated from a West Australian sponge, Trikentrion flabelliforme Hentschel, 1912, and their structures elucidated by integrated spectroscopic analysis. The compounds are analogues of previously described trikentrins, herbindoles, and trikentramides from related Axinellid sponges. The assignment of absolute configuration of the new compounds was carried out largely by comparative analysis of specific rotation, calculated and measured ECD, and exploiting van't Hoff's principle of optical superposition. Five of the new compounds were chemically interconverted to establish their stereochemical relationships, leading to a simple chiroptical mnemonic for assignment of the this family of chiral indoles. The first biosynthetic hypothesis is advanced to explain the origin of the trikentrin-herbinole family and proposes a pyrrole-carboxylic thioester-initiated polyketide synthase mechanism.