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Abstract
An ethanolic extract from a zoanthid crust coral Parazoanthus axinellae was lethal
to mice and crabs and exhibited anticholinesterase activity. The isolation of several
AChE inhibitors with the aid of RP-HPLC is described. The most abundant of the inhibitors
present in the P. axinellae extract was identified as pseudozoanthoxanthin or an almost
identical compound which belongs to the chemically well-characterized series of tetrazacyclopentazulene
natural pigments from the genera Parazoanthus, Epizoanthus, Zoanthus and Palythoa.
The inhibitor has a mol. wt of 242 and acts as a competitive inhibitor with a Ki of
4 microM. The inhibitor exhibited a strong blue fluorescence. In vivo action of crude
extract and the isolated inhibitor showed a typical picture of systemic acetylcholinesterase
inhibition. Atropinization of experimental animals prior to injection of the inhibitor
almost entirely neutralized its activity.