Ceryl Alcohol from the Grass, Agrostis

Abstract

Bondzynski and Humnicki1 isolated from horse dung an unsaponifiable substance which they named hippocoprosterol. It was assumed to be a reduced sterol, analogous to coprosterol, but representing a greater degree of reduction. It was later obtained, impure, by Wilenko.2 Doree and Gardner3 observed that hippocoprosterol from the horse, cow, sheep, and rabbit is not a product of sterol metabolism, but is merely an unaltered constituent of the grass ingested by these herbivora. Considering its origin, they renamed it chortosterol.Collison and MacLean4 observed recently that the alcoholic constituent of spinach leaves is identical with the ceryl alcohol of Chinese insect wax. Similarity in physical properties and percentage composition suggested to us that all these products are essentially one and the same substance. Experiments were begun with the grass known as bent, but they were discontinued after we saw the comprehensive report by Pollard, Chibnall and Piper.5 These workers indicated that hippocoprostero...