Anasterias minuta

Fig. (3). Structures of asterosaponins from the starfish Anasterias minuta...

Bioactivity-guided fractionation of the ethanolic extract of the Patagonian starfish Anasterias minuta using the brine shrimp (Artemia salina L.) larvae mortality assay led us to the isolation of three sulfated... 

In the last five years only a few examples of asterosaponins have been published in the literature. These include new pentaglycosides from the starfishes Labidiaster annulatus, Luidia quinaria, Psilaster cassiope and Culcita novaeguineae, together with three new hexaglycosides from the Patagonian starfish Anasterias minuta. Cytotoxie and antifungal activities were reported for some of these saponins as well as structure-activity... 

SCHEME 2 Methanolysis of anasterocerebroside A (9) isolated from the Patagonian starfish Anasterias minuta [30]... 

The species Myxoderma platyacanthum and Tremaster novaecaledoniae contain unusual polyhydroxy-sterols for which there are no known equivalents in other species. In the first species (M. platyacanthum), the side chain is an amide whose carbonyl derives from the oxidation of carbon 26 and the nitrogenous part of taurine. The second species (T. novaecaledoniae) contains the first knovm example of a phosphoric ester in position 6a with a classical side chain. This phosphoric ester is in addition associated with asterosaponins, also phosphorylated (see below). The role of these exceptional derivatives in these two sea stars seems not yet be known. Minutoside B is a glycoside isolated from the starfish Anasterias minuta harvested in Patagonia whose aglycone has the same atypical side chain of steroids as that found in Myxoderma platyacanthum (Chludil and Maier, 2005). 

Anasteroside A Anasterias minuta sc-35 C22 Chludil, Seldes, and Maier, 2002a... 

Chludil, H.D. and Maier, M.S. (2005) Minutosides A and B, antifungal sulfated steroid xylosides from ihe Patagonian starfish Anasterias minuta. J. Nat. Prod., 68,1279-1283. 

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