Abstract
WE have elsewhere described the isolation of a diethenoid alcohol, C30H50O, accompanying -amyrin and lupeol in the non-saponifiable fraction of shea nut oil1. We have now found that this alcohol, for which we propose the name basseol, is very readily cyclized by a variety of reagents to -amyrin. This reaction is, we believe, the first example of the conversion of a naturally occurring tetracyclic triterpene to a likewise naturally occurring pentacyclic triterpene. It is of considerable biological importance in that it supplies an experimental realization of one stage in the natural evolution of a pentacyclic triterpene from presumably an acyclic structure of the squalene type by means of step wise cyclizations.
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Heilbron, Moffet and Spring, J. Chem. Soc., 1583 (1934).
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BEYNON, J., HEILBRON, I. & SPRING, F. A Novel Interrelationship in the Triterpene Group. Nature 138, 1017 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/1381017a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1381017a0
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