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The isoprene rule and the biogenesis of terpenic compounds

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Zusammenfassung

Es wird eine Übersicht über die Kohlenstoffgerüste der Sesquiterpene, Diterpene und Triterpene gegeben. Die Isoprenregel zeigt in jeder dieser Gruppen besondere Eigenheiten. Auch die C30-Steroide und ein Steroid mit 31 Kohlenstoffatomen, die mit den Triterpenen verwandt sind, werden besprochen. Die Zusammenhänge zwischen Diterpenen und Triterpenen in bezug auf ihre Konstitution und Konfiguration werden diskutiert, wobei auf die weitgehende Übereinstimmung ihrer Konfiguration mit der Konfiguration der Steroide hingewiesen wird. Die kürzlich durch die Experimentalarbeiten vonBloch gewonnenen Kenntnisse über die biologische Entstehung des Cholesterins aus Essigsäure, unter sehr wahrscheinlicher Zwischenbildung des Triterpens Squalen, geben Anlass zur Erörterung hypothetischer Wege für die Biogenese der pentazyklischen Triterpene aus Squalen, der zyklischen Sesquiterpene aus Farnesol, der zyklischen Diterpene aus Geranyl-geraniol und schliesslich auch der zyklischen Monoterpene aus Geraniol, unter Beachtung der elektronischen Zyklisierungsmechanismen der organischen Chemie. Schliesslich wird die «biogenetische» Isoprenregel definiert und ihre Bedeutung diskutiert.

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References

  1. The cedrene formula (III,cf. also XVIII) was proposed byA. Eschenmoser in his Ph.-D. Thesis, E.T.H., Zurich, 1952. Its correctness was demonstrated experimentally byPlattner et al. Cf. the paper byPl. A. Plattner, XIIIth Internat. Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Stockholm, 29th July, 1953.

  2. Sorm was the first to propose a many-membered ring structure for a terpenic compound. The elucidation of the structural details of the caryophyllenes was completed byBarton, Clemo, Dawson, andRamage.

  3. Erratum: In the formulae of the C9 acids H and CH3 should be interchanged and 1 should read d.

  4. The second representative is cycloartenol (Spring; Barton).

  5. T. G. Halsall andE. R. H. Jones in a paper presented at the XIIIth Intern. Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Stockholm, 29th July, 1953, also proposed formula VIII for polyporenic acidA.

  6. Cf. A. Eschenmoser, Ph.-D. Thesis, E.T.H., Zurich, 1952, p. 16–38.

  7. Private communication.

  8. A. Mondon, Angew. Chemie65, 333 (1953), has recently published a paper in which he proposes a hypothetical iso-squalene as the biological precursor of cholesterol. In this hypothesis the rearrangement required in the deduction of the cholesterol formula from squalene is avoided. However,Mondon's proposal is in disagreement withBloch's experimental results, as it does not account for the presence of a carbon atom derived from an acetate methyl group in position 13 of cholesterol.

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  9. The position of the two double bonds in tetracyclosqualene, which has been proved byG. Büchi (private communication), explains why further cyclisation of tetracyclosqualene has so far been impossible.

  10. E. A. Rudolph, Ph.-D. Thesis, E.T.H., Zürich, 1925, p. 98, 99.

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  11. F. Šorm in a paper presented at the XIIIth Internat. Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Stockholm, 29th July, 1953.

  12. The word “constellation” (F. Ebel inK. Freudenberg, Stereochemie [F. Deuticke, Leipzig and Wien, 1933], p. 825) has the same meaning as “conformation” (cf. D. H. R. Barton, Soc.1953, 1027).

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From a lecture held at the XIIIth International Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Stockholm, 29th July, 1953.

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Ruzicka, L. The isoprene rule and the biogenesis of terpenic compounds. Experientia 9, 357–367 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02167631

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