Cholesterol homeostasis is tightly controlled process that involves a variety of regulators including liver X receptors (LXR). Agonists of LXR are expected to increase cholesterol efflux, lower LDL, and raise HDL levels. Screening of a natural product library of microbial extracts using a LXR-scintillation proximity assay (SPA) binding assay and bioassay-guided fractionation of a number of fungal extracts led to the isolation of five ergostane and a cycloartane derivative. These compounds exhibited IC50 value ranging 0.5 approximately 9 microM in the binding assay for a-receptor and a number of these showed in vitro agonist activity in the coactivator association assays but lacked the cell based LXR activation. The isolation and LXR activity of these compounds are described.