δ-Acetylornithine: a Constituent of some Common Grasses

Abstract

Two acetylornithines have been identified as natural products. α-Acetylornithine is accepted as an intermediate in the major pathway in the biosynthesis of ornithine from glutamic acid in Escherichia coli and has been isolated from culture filtrates of a mutant strain of this organism requiring ornithine¹. δ-Acetylornithine was isolated somewhat earlier from the roots of Corydalis ochotensis by Manske². It is also present in Corydalis bulbosa, and has been isolated as its dihydrochloride from the fern, Asplenium nidus ³. In a private communication, Prof. K. Mothes tells me that he and Dr. G. Reuter have extended Manske's findings and have shown that δ-acetylornithine is present in large amounts in nearly all the members of the Fumariaceae (of which Corydalis is a member) that they have examined.