Resumo:
Secondary metabolites from living beings represent an indispensable source of
active ingredients for the development of drugs. Marine organisms are responsible
for a diversity of metabolites under study for their potential pharmacological activity.
The vast Brazilian coast makes it possible to explore this natural diversity. Despite
not being native to the Atlantic Ocean, corals of the Tubastraea coccinea species,
popularly known as Sun Coral, have become part of the Brazilian marine ecosystem
and produce a vast spectrum of metabolites. The present project aimed to extract the
secondary metabolites of T. coccinea and analyze them by gas chromatography
coupled to mass spectrometry in order to draw chemical comparisons between two
collection points: Marina de Itaparica (MI) and Terminal Turístico Náutico da Bahia
(TTNB). In all samples from both locations, the major compound was cholesterol and
among the nitrogen compounds, indole was also found in all samples. It is worth
highlighting ethanone, 1-(7-amino-5-phenyl-[1,2,5]oxadiazolo[3,4-b]pyridin-6-yl)-,
which was found in a sample from TTNB and one from MI. This compound is an
alkaloid that was previously detected in a species of eucalyptus.
1H-Indole-3-acetonitrile was found only in MI and is also identified as a metabolite in
some plants. 1H-Indole-3-acetic acid, 2-oxopropyl ester, was detected in the two
TTNB samples, but it was not found in MI samples.
