Chemical Diversity of the Mediterranean sponge Axinella polypoides

Among the multitude of marine organisms, some of them appear to possess a much more efficient synthetic potential. This capacity doesn’t represent the attribute of a single species, but it is shared by a number of other sponges, tunicates, bryozoans or molluscs. The consequent uncommon chemodiversity of these invertebrates is a resource to be adequately exploited. The extremely rich secondary metabolism of some marine invertebrates can be illustrated through the case of the sponge Axinella polypoides, whose chemical analysis, revealed an incredible variety and abundance of secondary metabolites, some of them being new molecues. The structures of all the isolated metabolites have been elucidated mainly by spectroscopic methods (HRESIMS, 2DNMR, ECD) with the support of computational methods