Occurrence of eburicoic acid.

Abstract

IN the course of extensive studies on the metabolic products formed by the higher fungi, mainly of the class Basidiomycetes, grown on synthetic media, we examined a sample of decayed Eucalyptus regnans wood discovered at the Australian Newsprint Mills, Boyer, Tasmania, in 1944. From this mass of rotted wood encompassed with mycelial hyphae, the acetyl derivative of a monobasic acid has been isolated. On hydrolysis this acetate (m.p. 256–257° ; [α]20D + 35.8° (c, 3.1 in pyridine); found: C, 75.9; H, 10.1 per cent; molec. wt. (Rast), 455; C29H46O4 requires C, 76.0; H, 10.1 per cent; molec. wt. 458) gave rise to the parent acid (m.p. 293°, [α]17D + 35.6° (c, 1.4 in pyridine); found: C, 77.9; H, 10.5; C27H44O3 requires C, 77.9; H, 10.6 per cent), which appears to be a C27- and not the more usual C30- type of the triterpene group, examples of which are known to occur in naturally grown Polyporos betulinus Fr.1.