Attempts to obtain a molecular ion from the polyene macrolide antibiotic pimaricin by EI and FD mass spectrometry were unsuccessful The loss of carbon dioxide and a varying number of water molecules from the molecular ion made a molecular-weight determination impossible 13C NMR spectroscopy of N-acetylpimaricin, its dodecahydroderivative, and of HH-2, a hydrogenation-hydrogenolysis product of N-acetylpimaricin, confirmed that the antibiotic has structure 3 containing a hemi-ketalic ring and lacking an OH group at C-8. The value of the anomeric coupling constant, Jc-1-h-1, indicates that the mycosamine moiety is β-glycosidically bound to the aglycone. The structure and configuration of the antibiotic have been studied by analysis of the 270 MHz 1H-NMR spectra of N acetylpimaricin and HH-2. By comparison of the two spectra and by extensive decoupling experiments, all signals in the spectrum of N-acetylpimaricin have been assigned to the protons in structure 3. From chemical-shift, coupling constant, and integral values, it was deduced that the mycosamine ring is pyranoid with a chair conformation, the hemi-ketal is 6 membered and occupies a chair conformation with the substituents in equatorial positions, the epoxy protons as well as the olefinic protons are trans to each other, and the antibiotic is diastereomerically pure.
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