The effect of six sesquiterpenes containing an unsaturated dialdehyde functionality, on cell membrane permeability in the human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y has been studied. The kinetics of the membrane leakage after addition of the sesquiterpenes were determined by measuring the efflux of radioactivity from cells preloaded with tritiated 2-deoxyglucose. The concentrations that gave 5% and 20% efflux of radioactivity as compared with control cells (EC5 and EC20) were determined for each compound. In spite of the structural similarities between the compounds, the effects on cell membrane permeability varied considerably. EC20 for polygodial, which is the most active compound, is 2.5 microM after 20-min incubation, but no leakage could be determined for merulidial even at concentrations as high as 4 mM. Rather, this compound seems to stabilize or fix the cell membrane and a lower efflux of radioactivity was observed as compared to the control cells. A quantitative structure-activity relationship analysis for the five active compounds showed a good correlation between the membrane leakage activity and certain chemical characteristics. Structural features strongly correlated with high activity were found to be: The geometry and the atomic charges of the unsaturated dialdehyde functionality, the dipole moment, the energy difference between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lipophilicity.