Antigenotoxic ketosteroid from the red algae Jania adhaerens.

A new ketosteroid, 6β,16β-dihydroxycholest-4-en-3-one (1), in addition to the known 6β-hydroxycholest-4-en-3-one (2), 6β-hydroxycholest-4,22-dien-3-one (3) and 16β-hydroxy-5α-cholestan-3,6-dione (4), was isolated from the red alga Jania adhaerens. The structures were assigned on the basis of (1)H- and (13)C-NMR experiments. The new compound (1) was evaluated for its genotoxic and cytotoxic activities and found to possess protective antigenotoxicity in human peripheral blood cells.