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Sonchus arvensis L. or sow thistle has proved an excellent source of pentacylic triterpenes; triterpenes account for about 6% of the crude lipid extract or 0.2% of the dried plant. Composition of the triterpenoid fraction, as indicated by gas chromatography of the corresponding acetates, was α-amyrin (9%), β-amyrin (21%), lupeol (13%), taraxasterol (24%) and pseudo-taraxasterol (12%). A single, long-chain alcohol (16%) was also present. The nature of the triterpenoids was defined using gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and confirmed by direct comparison with authentic samples. The use of combined GC/MS proved extremely valuable in the simultaneous analysis of a mixture of triterpene acetates and greatly reduced the time needed to phytochemically evaluate these compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant sterols and triterpenes exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activities. As part of our ongoing studies of the medicinal aspects of Maritime flora, particularly the herbal remedies of the Micmac and Malecite Indians, we determined the nature of the sterols and triterpenes of Tanacetum vulgare L. (Compositae)-a widely used herbal remedy usually referred to as tansy. By using thin layer and gas chromatographics, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we were able to identify β-sitosterol as the major sterol and α-amyrin as the major triterpene of tansy. We also identified the sterols stigmasterol, campesterol and cholesterol, and the triterpenes β-amyrin and taraxasterol. A fourth triterpene was tentatively identified as pseudo-taraxasterol. The successful therapeutic application of this herb may be due partly to the presence of one or more of these compounds. The sterols and triterpenes of tansy have not been previously reported; neither, to our knowledge, have the NMR spectra of the amyrins and the NMR and mass spectra of taraxasterol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipids extracted from various tissues of four individual sunfish have been shown to contain the trans-6-hexadecenoic acid previously reported for marine turtles, a metridium and a jelly fish, and also the 7-methyl-7-hexadecenoic acid recently isolated from one sunfish liver oil sample. The other fatty acids present were qualitatively typical of marine lipids in general. Unusual quantitative details included high percentages of 18∶0 and 20∶4ω6, which are also found in the Atlantic leatherback turtle and presumably linked to a similar diet of jellyfish and to other common factors. In a sample of lipids from intestinal contents trans-6-hexadecenoic acid was found to be the predominant C monoene, and was accompanied by comparatively large amounts of the 7-methyl-7-hexadecenoic acid. This observation and other fatty acid details are compatible with an exogenous origin for these acids and jellyfish, etc., as a predominant dietary material for the ocean sunfish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fatty acid amounting to several per cent of the acids in various samples of the liver oil of the ocean sunfish Mola mola was isolated and characterized as 7-methyl-7-hexadecenoic acid. This acid and the previously reported 7-methyl-6-hexadecenoic acid are believed to be chiefly responsible for the 7-methylhexadecanoic acid observed in many fatty acid mixtures of marine origin after hydrogenation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trans-6-hexadecenoic acid was found in polar lipids, triglycerides, was esters and diacylglyceryl ethers of the sea anemone Metridium dianthus from Passamaquoddy Bay. The corresponding alcomaquoddy Bay. The corresponding alcohol also apparently occurs in the wax esters of this species. The long-chain (C, C) monoethylenic alcohols reported for other species of sea anemones from neighboring waters were absent and the major alcohol and glyceryl ether chain both had 16∶0 structures. The isomers of C and C monoethylenic fatty acids in polar lipids and triglycerides were unusual in their high proportion of the ω isomer. These two lipids also contained higher proportion of the polyunsaturated fatty acids than the others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depot fat from the Atlantic leatherback turtle ( Dermochelys coriacea coriacea L.) was shown to contain ≈3% of trans-6-hexadecenoic acid. Structural details were elucidated through comparative aspects of isolation techniques, NMR, IR, hydrogenation, oxidative fission, etc., and confirmed by similarity of properties with those of a sample of fatty acid of this structure isolated from the seed oil of Picramnia sellowii. One additional leather-back turtle oil sample, and depot fat from two other marine turtles, the loggerhead ( Caretta caretta caretta) and ridley ( Lepidochelys olivacea kempi) contained this acid, that from the ridley in a lower proportion. No corresponding C acid was detected in the leatherback oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unusual fatty acid, trans-6-hexadecenoic, previously found in the lipids of marine turtles, the ocean sunfish and a sea anemone, is also present in the lipids of the white jellyfish and in a common Caribbean sublittoral gorgonian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]