From the soft coral Sarcophyton molle collected from the South China Sea, a crystalline compound was isolated. By spectral analysis, its structure was deduced as the known cembranoid diterpene Sarcophine (1). Its structure had been determined by J. Bernstein et al. previously on the base of single-crystal X-ray diffraction study, but no complete ^1H NMR assignments and ^1^3C NMR data had been reported. In this paper, by ^1H-^1H COSY, HMQC and HMBC experiments, the assignments of all ^1H resonances and the ^1^3C NMR data for Sarcophine were reported for the first time.

Key words: SPECTRUM ANALYSIS, LACTONE DERIVATIVE, C13 NMR SPECTROMETRY, SOFT CORAL, 2D NMR SPECTROMETRY, MACROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS, DITERPENES, NMR SPECTROMETRY