A competitive inhibitor of PC-PLC (Ki = 6.4 μM); has no effect on bacterial phosphatidylinositol-specific PLC, bovine pancreatic PLA2, or phospholipase D; reduces sphingomyelin synthase activity by 55.5 and 90.5% in membrane preparations when used at concentrations of 100 and 200 mg/ml, respectively; has antioxidant, antiviral, and anti-tumor activities; inhibits LPS-stimulated NOS expression in phagocytes (IC50 = 20 μg/ml) and IL-1β-induced VCAM-1 expression in endothelial cells